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78-539: Chuzhou has a monsoon -influenced, humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Cfa ), with four distinct seasons. Winters are cold and damp, with average low temperatures in January dipping just below freezing; the January 24-hour average temperature is 2.6 °C (36.7 °F). Summers are typically hot and humid, with a July average of 27.6 °C (81.7 °F). The annual mean is 15.9 °C (60.6 °F), while annual precipitation averages 1,074.7 millimetres (42 in),

156-614: A concentrated belt that stretches east–west except in East China where it is tilted east-northeast over Korea and Japan. The seasonal rain is known as Meiyu in China, Jangma in Korea, and Bai-u in Japan, with the latter two resembling frontal rain. The onset of the summer monsoon is marked by a period of premonsoonal rain over South China and Taiwan in early May. From May through August,

234-410: A dominant westerly component and a strong tendency to ascend and produce copious amounts of rain (because of the condensation of water vapor in the rising air). The intensity and duration, however, are not uniform from year to year. Winter monsoons, by contrast, have a dominant easterly component and a strong tendency to diverge, subside and cause drought. Similar rainfall is caused when moist ocean air

312-622: A few sub-systems, such as the Indian Subcontinental Monsoon which affects the Indian subcontinent and surrounding regions including Nepal, and the East Asian Monsoon which affects southern China, Taiwan , Korea and parts of Japan. The southwestern summer monsoons occur from June through September. The Thar Desert and adjoining areas of the northern and central Indian subcontinent heat up considerably during

390-547: A low pressure system known as a monsoon trough develops over South-East Asia and Australasia and winds are directed toward Australia. In the Philippines, northeast monsoon is called Amihan . The East Asian monsoon affects large parts of Indochina , the Philippines , China, Taiwan , Korea, Japan, and Siberia . It is characterised by a warm, rainy summer monsoon and a cold, dry winter monsoon. The rain occurs in

468-542: A majority of which occurs from May to August. The prefecture-level city of Chuzhou administers eight county-level divisions , including two districts , a sub-prefecture-level city ( Tianchang ), a county-level city and four counties . The population information here presented uses 2010 census data of permanent residents. These are further divided into 178 township-level divisions , including 86 towns , 78 townships and 14 subdistricts . Mount Langya in Chuzhou

546-464: A more even temperature, while land temperatures are more variable. During warmer months sunlight heats the surfaces of both land and oceans, but land temperatures rise more quickly. As the land's surface becomes warmer, the air above it expands and an area of low pressure develops. Meanwhile, the ocean remains at a lower temperature than the land, and the air above it retains a higher pressure. This difference in pressure causes sea breezes to blow from

624-626: A result of mixing of Last Interglacial ice with ice from the preceding or succeeding glacial intervals. The warmest peak of the Last Interglacial was around 125,000 years ago, when forests reached as far north as North Cape, Norway (which is now tundra ) well above the Arctic Circle at 71°10′21″N 25°47′40″E  /  71.17250°N 25.79444°E  / 71.17250; 25.79444 . Hardwood trees such as hazel and oak grew as far north as Oulu , Finland. At

702-646: A weakening of the Leeuwin Current (LC). The weakening of the LC would have an effect on the sea surface temperature (SST) field in the Indian Ocean, as the Indonesian Throughflow generally warms the Indian Ocean. Thus these five intervals could probably be those of considerable lowering of SST in the Indian Ocean and would have influenced Indian monsoon intensity. During the weak LC, there

780-448: Is a National Forest Park, National Scenic Area and 4A Tourism Attraction, the mountain is one of Anhui's five biggest scenic attractions. Monsoon A monsoon ( / m ɒ n ˈ s uː n / ) is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscillation of

858-501: Is believed to have been warmer than the current Holocene. The temperature of the Last Interglacial peaked during the early part of the period, around 128,000 to 123,000 years Before Present , before declining during the latter half of the period. Changes in the Earth's orbital parameters from today (greater obliquity and eccentricity, and perihelion), known as Milankovitch cycles , probably led to greater seasonal temperature variations in

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936-666: Is directly of "cyclonic" (i.e., monsoon-driven) origin (as opposed to " local convection "). The effects also extend westwards to the Mediterranean, where however the impact of the monsoon is to induce drought via the Rodwell-Hoskins mechanism . Around September, with the sun retreating south, the northern landmass of the Indian subcontinent begins to cool off rapidly, and air pressure begins to build over northern India. The Indian Ocean and its surrounding atmosphere still hold their heat, causing cold wind to sweep down from

1014-533: Is lifted upwards by mountains, surface heating, convergence at the surface, divergence aloft, or from storm-produced outflows at the surface. However the lifting occurs, the air cools due to expansion in lower pressure, and this produces condensation . The monsoon of western Sub-Saharan Africa is the result of the seasonal shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the great seasonal temperature and humidity differences between

1092-581: Is of some interest for the evolution of anatomically modern humans , who were present in Western Asia ( Skhul and Qafzeh hominins ) as well as in Southern Africa by this time, representing the earliest split of modern human populations that persists to the present time (associated with mitochondrial haplogroup L0 ). As the most recent point in time with a climate comparable to the Holocene,

1170-593: Is the possibility of reduced intensity of the Indian winter monsoon and strong summer monsoon, because of change in the Indian Ocean dipole due to reduction in net heat input to the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian Throughflow. Thus a better understanding of the possible links between El Niño , Western Pacific Warm Pool, Indonesian Throughflow, wind pattern off western Australia, and ice volume expansion and contraction can be obtained by studying

1248-518: The American lion ( Panthera atrox ) appeared and become widespread across North America, having descended from populations of the Eurasian cave lion ( Panthera spelaea ) that had migrated into Alaska during the preceding Penultimate Glacial Period. The range of cold-adapted taxa like the woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ) contracted towards refugia . Neanderthals managed to colonise

1326-592: The Canadian Arctic Archipelago : currently, the northern limit is further south at Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec . Coastal Alaska was warm enough during the summer due to reduced sea ice in the Arctic Ocean to allow Saint Lawrence Island (now tundra) to have boreal forest, although inadequate precipitation caused a reduction in the forest cover in interior Alaska and Yukon Territory despite warmer conditions. The prairie-forest boundary in

1404-622: The Eemian interglacial, suggests that they had an average duration of around 64 years, with the minimum duration being around 50 years and the maximum approximately 80 years, similar to today. A study of marine plankton suggested that the South Asian Monsoon (SAM) strengthened around 5 million years ago. Then, during ice periods, the sea level fell and the Indonesian Seaway closed. When this happened, cold waters in

1482-748: The Great Plains of the United States lay further west near Lubbock, Texas , whereas the current boundary is near Dallas . Interglacial conditions ended on Antarctica while the Northern Hemisphere was still experiencing warmth. Sea level at peak was probably 6 to 9 metres (20 to 30 feet) higher than today, with Greenland contributing 0.6 to 3.5 m (2.0 to 11.5 ft), thermal expansion and mountain glaciers contributing up to 1 m (3.3 ft), and an uncertain contribution from Antarctica. A 2007 study found evidence that

1560-685: The Hadley circulation during boreal winter. It is associated with the development of the Siberian High and the movement of the heating maxima from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere. North-easterly winds flow down Southeast Asia, are turned north-westerly/westerly by Borneo topography towards Australia. This forms a cyclonic circulation vortex over Borneo, which together with descending cold surges of winter air from higher latitudes, cause significant weather phenomena in

1638-623: The Himalayas and Indo-Gangetic Plain towards the vast spans of the Indian Ocean south of the Deccan peninsula. This is known as the Northeast Monsoon or Retreating Monsoon. While travelling towards the Indian Ocean, the cold dry wind picks up some moisture from the Bay of Bengal and pours it over peninsular India and parts of Sri Lanka . Cities like Chennai , which get less rain from

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1716-481: The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) between its limits to the north and south of the equator. Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is also sometimes used to describe locally heavy but short-term rains. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African , Asian– Australian ,

1794-701: The North American , and South American monsoons. The term was first used in English in British India and neighboring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area. The etymology of the word monsoon is not wholly certain. The English monsoon came from Portuguese monção ultimately from Arabic موسم ( mawsim , "season"), "perhaps partly via early modern Dutch monson ". Strengthening of

1872-594: The North Atlantic Current , lasting hundreds of years and causing temperature drops of a few degrees and vegetation changes in these regions. In Northern Europe, winter temperatures rose over the course of the Last Interglacial while summer temperatures fell. During an insolation maximum from 133,000 to 130,000 BP, meltwater from the Dnieper and Volga caused the Black and Caspian Seas to connect. During

1950-785: The Sahara and the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. The ITCZ migrates northward from the equatorial Atlantic in February, reaches western Africa on or near June 22, then moves back to the south by October. The dry, northeasterly trade winds , and their more extreme form, the harmattan , are interrupted by the northern shift in the ITCZ and resultant southerly, rain-bearing winds during the summer. The semiarid Sahel and Sudan depend upon this pattern for most of their precipitation. The North American monsoon ( NAM ) occurs from late June or early July into September, originating over Mexico and spreading into

2028-683: The South China Sea led to a timing of the monsoon beginning 15–20 million years ago and linked to early Tibetan uplift. Testing of this hypothesis awaits deep ocean sampling by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program . The monsoon has varied significantly in strength since this time, largely linked to global climate change , especially the cycle of the Pleistocene ice ages. A study of Asian monsoonal climate cycles from 123,200 to 121,210 years BP, during

2106-484: The global wave of megafauna extinctions that occurred during the following Last Glacial Period, has been suggested as a "baseline" reference point for the analysis and restoration of modern European ecosystems. Following the melting of the Laurentide Ice Sheet , a number of North American megafauna species migrated northwards to inhabit northern Canada and Alaska during the Last Interglacial, including

2184-618: The return of the westerlies ) is the result of a resurgence of westerly winds from the Atlantic, where they become loaded with wind and rain. These westerly winds are a common phenomenon during the European winter, but they ease as spring approaches in late March and through April and May. The winds pick up again in June, which is why this phenomenon is also referred to as "the return of the westerlies". The rain usually arrives in two waves, at

2262-647: The Alps, conditions were 1–2 °C cooler than today. The model (generated using observed greenhouse gas concentrations and Last Interglacial orbital parameters) generally reproduces these observations, leading them to conclude that these factors are enough to explain the Last Interglacial temperatures. Meltwater pulse 2B, approximately 133,000 BP, substantially weakened the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM). Trees grew as far north as southern Baffin Island in

2340-490: The American camel Camelops hesternus , mastodons (genus Mammut ) the large ground sloth Megalonyx jeffersonii , and the bear sized giant beaver Castoroides , with the lower latitudes of Canada being inhabited (in addition to the aformentioned taxa) by species like Columbian mammoth ( Mammuthus columbi ), stag-moose ( Cervalces ), and the llama Hemiauchenia . The steppe bison ( Bison priscus ) migrated into

2418-756: The Asian monsoon has been linked to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau after the collision of the Indian subcontinent and Asia around 50 million years ago. Because of studies of records from the Arabian Sea and that of the wind-blown dust in the Loess Plateau of China, many geologists believe the monsoon first became strong around 8 million years ago. More recently, studies of plant fossils in China and new long-duration sediment records from

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2496-704: The EASM grew in strength, but it has been suggested to have decreased in strength during Heinrich events . The EASM expanded its influence deeper into the interior of Asia as sea levels rose following the LGM; it also underwent a period of intensification during the Middle Holocene, around 6,000 years ago, due to orbital forcing made more intense by the fact that the Sahara at the time was much more vegetated and emitted less dust. This Middle Holocene interval of maximum EASM

2574-601: The East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) became stronger as the subarctic front shifted southwards. An abrupt intensification of the EAWM occurred 5.5 million years ago. The EAWM was still significantly weaker relative to today between 4.3 and 3.8 million years ago but abruptly became more intense around 3.8 million years ago as crustal stretching widened the Tsushima Strait and enabled greater inflow of

2652-506: The GDP and employs 70% of the population) is heavily dependent on the rains, for growing crops especially like cotton , rice , oilseeds and coarse grains. A delay of a few days in the arrival of the monsoon can badly affect the economy, as evidenced in the numerous droughts in India in the 1990s. The monsoon is widely welcomed and appreciated by city-dwellers as well, for it provides relief from

2730-604: The Greenland ice core site Dye 3 was glaciated during the Last Interglacial, which implies that Greenland could have contributed at most 2 m (6.6 ft) to sea level rise . Recent research on marine sediment cores offshore of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet suggest that the sheet melted during the Last Interglacial, and that ocean waters rose as fast as 2.5 meters per century. Global mean sea surface temperatures are thought to have been higher than in

2808-546: The Holocene, but not by enough to explain the rise in sea level through thermal expansion alone, and so melting of polar ice caps must also have occurred. Because of the sea level drop since the Last Interglacial, exposed fossil coral reefs are common in the tropics, especially in the Caribbean and along the Red Sea coastlines. These reefs often contain internal erosion surfaces showing significant sea level instability during

2886-416: The Last Interglacial is also of relevance as a point of reference ( baseline ) for nature conservation. The Last Interglacial was first recognized from boreholes in the area of the city of Amersfoort , Netherlands , by Pieter Harting (1875). He named the beds "Système Eémien", after the river Eem on which Amersfoort is located. Harting noticed the marine molluscan assemblages to be very different from

2964-691: The Last Interglacial. Along the Central Mediterranean Spanish coast, sea levels were comparable to those of the present. Scandinavia formed an island due to the area between the Gulf of Finland and the White Sea being drowned. Vast areas of northwestern Europe and the West Siberian Plain were inundated. The warmness of the interval allowed temperate-adapted taxa to extend their range considerably northward, with

3042-845: The Late Holocene, significant glacial accumulation in the Himalayas still occurred due to cold temperatures brought by westerlies from the west. During the Middle Miocene , the July ITCZ, the zone of rainfall maximum, migrated northwards, increasing precipitation over southern China during the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) while making Indochina drier. During the Late Miocene Global Cooling (LMCG), from 7.9 to 5.8 million years ago,

3120-636: The Netherlands have mainly been recognized by their marine molluscan content combined with their stratigraphical position and other palaeontology. The marine beds there are often underlain by tills that are considered to date from the Saalian , and overlain by local fresh water or wind-blown deposits from the Weichselian . In contrast to e.g. the deposits in Denmark, the Last Interglacial deposits in

3198-549: The Northern Hemisphere. As the Last Interglacial cooled, p CO 2 remained stable. During the northern summer, temperatures in the Arctic region were about 2–4 °C higher than in 2011. The Arctic Last Interglacial climate was highly unstable, with pronounced temperature swings revealed by δ O fluctuations in Greenlandic ice cores, though some of the instability inferred from Greenland ice core project records may be

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3276-506: The Pacific were impeded from flowing into the Indian Ocean. It is believed that the resulting increase in sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean increased the intensity of monsoons. In 2018, a study of the SAM's variability over the past million years found that precipitation resulting from the monsoon was significantly reduced during glacial periods compared to interglacial periods like

3354-422: The Southwest Monsoon first hits the Western Ghats of the coastal state of Kerala , India, thus making this area the first state in India to receive rain from the Southwest Monsoon. This branch of the monsoon moves northwards along the Western Ghats ( Konkan and Goa ) with precipitation on coastal areas, west of the Western Ghats. The eastern areas of the Western Ghats do not receive much rain from this monsoon as

3432-535: The Southwest Monsoon, receive rain from this Monsoon. About 50% to 60% of the rain received by the state of Tamil Nadu is from the Northeast Monsoon. In Southern Asia, the northeastern monsoons take place from October to December when the surface high-pressure system is strongest. The jet stream in this region splits into the southern subtropical jet and the polar jet. The subtropical flow directs northeasterly winds to blow across southern Asia, creating dry air streams which produce clear skies over India. Meanwhile,

3510-458: The air temperature remains relatively stable for two reasons: water has a relatively high heat capacity (3.9 to 4.2 J g K ), and because both conduction and convection will equilibrate a hot or cold surface with deeper water (up to 50 metres). In contrast, dirt, sand, and rocks have lower heat capacities (0.19 to 0.35 J g K ), and they can only transmit heat into the earth by conduction and not by convection. Therefore, bodies of water stay at

3588-445: The arrival at the Eastern Himalayas, the winds turns towards the west, travelling over the Indo-Gangetic Plain at a rate of roughly 1–2 weeks per state, pouring rain all along its way. June 1 is regarded as the date of onset of the monsoon in India, as indicated by the arrival of the monsoon in the southernmost state of Kerala. The monsoon accounts for nearly 80% of the rainfall in India. Indian agriculture (which accounts for 25% of

3666-507: The beginning of June, and again in mid- to late June. The European monsoon is not a monsoon in the traditional sense in that it doesn't meet all the requirements to be classified as such. Instead, the return of the westerlies is more regarded as a conveyor belt that delivers a series of low-pressure centres to Western Europe where they create unsettled weather. These storms generally feature significantly lower-than-average temperatures, fierce rain or hail, thunder, and strong winds. The return of

3744-407: The beginning of the Last Glacial Period . It corresponds to Marine Isotope Stage 5e . It was the second-to-latest interglacial period of the current Ice Age, the most recent being the Holocene which extends to the present day (having followed the last glacial period ). During the Last Interglacial, the proportion of CO 2 in the atmosphere was about 280 parts per million. The Last Interglacial

3822-414: The behaviour of the LC during Quaternary at close stratigraphic intervals. The South American summer monsoon (SASM) is known to have become weakened during Dansgaard–Oeschger events. The SASM has been suggested to have been enhanced during Heinrich events. Monsoons were once considered as a large-scale sea breeze caused by higher temperature over land than in the ocean. This is no longer considered as

3900-475: The cause and the monsoon is now considered a planetary-scale phenomenon involving the annual migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone between its northern and southern limits. The limits of the ITCZ vary according to the land–sea heating contrast and it is thought that the northern extent of the monsoon in South Asia is influenced by the high Tibetan Plateau. These temperature imbalances happen because oceans and land absorb heat in different ways. Over oceans,

3978-609: The climax of summer heat in June. However, the roads take a battering every year. Often houses and streets are waterlogged and slums are flooded despite drainage systems. A lack of city infrastructure coupled with changing climate patterns causes severe economic loss including damage to property and loss of lives, as evidenced in the 2005 flooding in Mumbai that brought the city to a standstill. Bangladesh and certain regions of India like Assam and West Bengal , also frequently experience heavy floods during this season. Recently, areas in India that used to receive scanty rainfall throughout

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4056-399: The colder months, the cycle is reversed. Then the land cools faster than the oceans and the air over the land has higher pressure than air over the ocean. This causes the air over the land to flow to the ocean. When humid air rises over the ocean, it cools, and this causes precipitation over the oceans. (The cool air then flows towards the land to complete the cycle.) Most summer monsoons have

4134-424: The global interglacial), Ipswichian in Britain, the Mikulino (also spelled Milukin) interglacial in Russia, the Kaydaky in Ukraine, the Valdivia interglacial in Chile , and the Riss-Würm interglacial in the Alps . Depending on how a specific publication defines the Sangamonian Stage of North America, the Last Interglacial is equivalent to either all or part of it. The period falls into the Middle Paleolithic and

4212-400: The heartlands of North America from Alaska at the beginning of the Last Interglacial, giving rise to the giant long-horned bison Bison latifrons (which is first known from the Snowmass site in Colorado, dating to around 120,000 years ago) and ultimately all North American bison species, and marking the beginning of the Rancholabrean faunal age in North America. Also during this time period

4290-448: The higher latitudes of Europe during this time interval, after having retreated from the region due to unfavourable conditions during the Penultimate Glacial Period. However, unlike previous interglacials, they were absent from Britain, likely due to Britain being an island during this time. During the Last Interglacial, Neanderthals engaged in a variety of food-gathering activities, including fishing, as well as big-game hunting, including

4368-459: The hot summers. This causes a low pressure area over the northern and central Indian subcontinent. To fill this void, the moisture-laden winds from the Indian Ocean rush into the subcontinent. These winds, rich in moisture, are drawn towards the Himalayas . The Himalayas act like a high wall, blocking the winds from passing into Central Asia, and forcing them to rise. As the clouds rise, their temperature drops, and precipitation occurs . Some areas of

4446-401: The middle of the Last Interglacial, a weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) began to cool the eastern Mediterranean region. The period closed as temperatures steadily fell to conditions cooler and drier than the present, with a 468-year-long aridity pulse in central Europe at about 116,000 BC, and by 112,000 BC, ice caps began to form in southern Norway, marking

4524-428: The modern fauna of the North Sea . Many species from the Last Interglacial layers nowadays show a much more southern distribution, ranging from South of the Strait of Dover to Portugal ( Lusitanian faunal province) and even into the Mediterranean (Mediterranean faunal province). More information on the molluscan assemblages is given by Lorié (1887), and Spaink (1958). Since their discovery, Last Interglacial beds in

4602-444: The monsoon is not a simple response to heating but a more complex interaction of topography, wind and sea, as demonstrated by its abrupt rather than gradual withdrawal from the region. The Australian monsoon (the "Wet") occurs in the southern summer when the monsoon trough develops over Northern Australia . Over three-quarters of annual rainfall in Northern Australia falls during this time. The European Monsoon (more commonly known as

4680-454: The north between approximately 8,000 and 4,000 BP, and most recently retreated southward once more between 4,000 and 0 BP. The January ITCZ migrated further south to its present location during the Middle Miocene, strengthening the summer monsoon of Australia that had previously been weaker. Five episodes during the Quaternary at 2.22 Ma ( PL-1), 1.83 Ma (PL-2), 0.68 Ma (PL-3), 0.45 Ma (PL-4) and 0.04 Ma (PL-5) were identified which showed

4758-413: The ocean to the land, bringing moist air inland. This moist air rises to a higher altitude over land and then it flows back toward the ocean (thus completing the cycle). However, when the air rises, and while it is still over the land, the air cools . This decreases the air's ability to hold water , and this causes precipitation over the land. This is why summer monsoons cause so much rain over land. In

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4836-526: The peak of the Last Interglacial, the Northern Hemisphere winters were generally warmer and wetter than now, though some areas were actually slightly cooler than today. A cooling event similar to but not exactly mirroring the 8.2-kiloyear event is recorded from Beckentin during the E5 phase of the Eemian, some 6,290 years after the start of interglacial afforestation. A 2018 study based on soil samples from Sokli in northern Finland identified abrupt cold spells ca. 120,000 years ago caused by shifts in

4914-423: The present day. The Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) underwent several intensifications during the warming following the Last Glacial Maximum, specifically during the time intervals corresponding to 16,100–14,600 BP, 13,600–13,000 BP, and 12,400–10,400 BP as indicated by vegetation changes in the Tibetan Plateau displaying increases in humidity brought by an intensifying ISM. Though the ISM was relatively weak for much of

4992-987: The range of the hippopotamus ( Hippopotamus amphibius ) notably extending as far north as North Yorkshire in northern England, though their range outside of southern Europe did not extend much further east of than the Rhine . The temperate landscapes of Europe were inhabited by large now extinct megafauna including the straight-tusked elephant ( Palaeoloxodon antiquus ), the narrow-nosed rhinoceros ( Stephanorhinus hemitoechus ), Merck's rhinoceros ( Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis ), Irish elk ( Megaloceros giganteus ) and aurochs ( Bos primigenius ), alongside still-living species like red deer ( Cervus elaphus ), fallow deer ( Dama dama ), roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) and wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), with predators including lions (the extinct Panthera spelaea ) and cave hyenas ( Crocuta ( Crocuta ) spelaea ), brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) and wolves ( Canis lupus ). The Last Interglacial ecosystems of Europe, which existed prior to

5070-446: The region. Examples are the formation of a rare low-latitude tropical storm in 2001, Tropical Storm Vamei , and the devastating flood of Jakarta in 2007. The onset of the monsoon over Australia tends to follow the heating maxima down Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula (September), to Sumatra , Borneo and the Philippines (October), to Java , Sulawesi (November), Irian Jaya and northern Australia (December, January). However,

5148-465: The same time a parastratotype was selected in the Amsterdam glacial basin in the Amsterdam-Terminal borehole and was the subject of a multidisciplinary investigation (Van Leeuwen, et al., 2000). These authors also published a U/Th age for late Last Interglacial deposits from this borehole of 118,200 ± 6,300 years ago. A historical review of Dutch Last Interglacial research is provided by Bosch, Cleveringa and Meijer, 2000. The Last Interglacial climate

5226-417: The southwest United States by mid-July. It affects Mexico along the Sierra Madre Occidental as well as Arizona , New Mexico , Nevada , Utah , Colorado , West Texas and California . It pushes as far west as the Peninsular Ranges and Transverse Ranges of Southern California, but rarely reaches the coastal strip (a wall of desert thunderstorms only a half-hour's drive away is a common summer sight from

5304-405: The start of a new glacial period . The Eemian lasted about 1,500 to 3,000 years longer in Southern Europe than in Northern Europe. Kaspar et al. (GRL, 2005) performed a comparison of a coupled general circulation model (GCM) with reconstructed Last Interglacial temperatures for Europe. Central Europe (north of the Alps) was found to be 1–2 °C (1.8–3.6 °F) warmer than present; south of

5382-428: The subcontinent receive up to 10,000 mm (390 in) of rain annually. The southwest monsoon is generally expected to begin around the beginning of June and fade away by the end of September. The moisture-laden winds on reaching the southernmost point of the Indian Peninsula , due to its topography, become divided into two parts: the Arabian Sea Branch and the Bay of Bengal Branch . The Arabian Sea Branch of

5460-423: The summer monsoon shifts through a series of dry and rainy phases as the rain belt moves northward, beginning over Indochina and the South China Sea (May), to the Yangtze River Basin and Japan (June) and finally to northern China and Korea (July). When the monsoon ends in August, the rain belt moves back to southern China. The rainy season occurs from September to February and it is a major source of energy for

5538-483: The sunny skies along the coast during the monsoon). The North American monsoon is known to many as the Summer , Southwest , Mexican or Arizona monsoon. It is also sometimes called the Desert monsoon as a large part of the affected area are the Mojave and Sonoran deserts . However, it is controversial whether the North and South American weather patterns with incomplete wind reversal should be counted as true monsoons. The Asian monsoons may be classified into

5616-420: The type area have never been found overlain by tills, nor in ice-pushed positions. Van Voorthuysen (1958) described the foraminifera from the type site, whereas Zagwijn (1961) published the palynology , providing a subdivision of this stage into pollen stages. At the end of the 20th century, the type site was re-investigated using old and new data in a multi-disciplinary approach (Cleveringa et al., 2000). At

5694-713: The warm Tsushima Current into the Sea of Japan. Circa 3.0 million years ago, the EAWM became more stable, having previously been more variable and inconsistent, in addition to being enhanced further amidst a period of global cooling and sea level fall. The EASM was weaker during cold intervals of glacial periods such as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and stronger during interglacials and warm intervals of glacial periods. Another EAWM intensification event occurred 2.6 million years ago, followed by yet another one around 1.0 million years ago. During Dansgaard–Oeschger events ,

5772-537: The westerlies affects Europe's Northern Atlantic coastline, more precisely Ireland, Great Britain, the Benelux countries , western Germany, northern France and parts of Scandinavia. Eemian The Last Interglacial , also known as the Eemian , was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago at the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and ended about 115,000 years ago at

5850-719: The wind does not cross the Western Ghats. The Bay of Bengal Branch of Southwest Monsoon flows over the Bay of Bengal heading towards north-east India and Bengal , picking up more moisture from the Bay of Bengal. The winds arrive at the Eastern Himalayas with large amounts of rain. Mawsynram , situated on the southern slopes of the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya , India, is one of the wettest places on Earth. After

5928-604: The year, like the Thar Desert , have surprisingly ended up receiving floods due to the prolonged monsoon season. The influence of the Southwest Monsoon is felt as far north as in China's Xinjiang . It is estimated that about 70% of all precipitation in the central part of the Tian Shan Mountains falls during the three summer months, when the region is under the monsoon influence; about 70% of that

6006-586: Was associated with an expansion of temperate deciduous forest steppe and temperate mixed forest steppe in northern China. By around 5,000 to 4,500 BP, the East Asian monsoon's strength began to wane, weakening from that point until the present day. A particularly notable weakening took place ~3,000 BP. The location of the EASM shifted multiple times over the course of the Holocene: first, it moved southward between 12,000 and 8,000 BP, followed by an expansion to

6084-502: Was one of the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, with temperatures comparable to and at times warmer (by up to on average 2 degrees Celsius) than the contemporary Holocene interglacial, with the maximum sea level being up to 6 to 9 metres higher than at present, with global ice volume likely also being smaller than the Holocene interglacial. The Last Interglacial is known as the Eemian in northern Europe (sometimes used to describe

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