monsoons

Over the past two weeks, a combination of the southwest monsoon and tropical cyclones passing in the vicinity of the northern Philippines has resulted in massive flooding in and around the Philippine capital. It is the worst flooding there since Typhoon Ketsana in 2009, which devastated Manila and killed over 400 people throughout the country. The current flooding began at the end of July with the passing of Typhoon Saola (known as Gener in the Philippines) northeast of Luzon. Although the center of Saola made landfall in northern Taiwan and passed well to the east of Luzon, the storm's

Low pressure centers associated with a summer monsoon trough have repeatedly drenched Australia from central Queensland to northern New South Wales. The clockwise rotation of these low pressure centers have continued to pump warm moist air from the Coral Sea over these areas resulting in severe flooding. Thousands of Australians have been displaced by this flooding. The current La Nina conditions are predicted to continue causing heavy rainfall over northeastern Australia. Data from the TRMM satellite are used to calibrate rainfall data merged from various satellite sources. This TRMM-based

Thousands of people were asked to evacuate recently as parts of northern and eastern Australia felt the effects of heavy rains brought about by the summer monsoon. Though not expected to be as bad as last year, when dozens of people were killed and tens of thousands of homes were flooded, the recent heavy rains have led to flash flooding and landslides in Queensland and caused rivers to overflow their banks in New South Wales. The monsoon plays a prominent role in the annual rainfall cycle over Australia. A monsoon is a seasonal phenomenon wherein an area of low pressure forms over a large