Where are monsoons very common?

Answer 1

A monsoon is a phenomena where the prevailing wind direction shifts with a change in the seasons. It is most commonly associated with the southwest part of India (and nearby regions) where the the winds shift from the Northeast (in the direction of China) in the winter to the Southwest coming from over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea). The winter winds are comparatively dry since they have already dumped most of their moisture as they pass over all that land and over the Himalayas. The summer winds pick up lots of moisture coming over all that warm water in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea and dump heavy rains as they pass over land.

Strictly speaking a "monsoon" is the phenomena of prevailing wind direction shifting drastically (about 180° around the Indian subcontinent) with the change of seasons, but in actual usage, we commonly associate it with the heavy rains that come with the shift. Because the summer winds pass over a fair amount of land before they hit the Himalayas (and because at those altitudes snow is a lot more common than rain) those mountains don't normally see the heavy rainfall we think of when we talk about a monsoon - but they do see the wind shifts so technically "monsoons" are also common there.

Sub-Saharan Africa also experiences the monsoon wind shifts but not the torrential rains that the Indian subcontinent experiences, just a shift from arid, to somewhat rainy.

Parts of East Asia including Indo-China, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan experience a monsoon with warm rainy summers when the winds are southeastern and dry, cold winters when the winds are northeastern (from the direction of China, Mongolia, and Siberia). Australia gets some of this effect too.

Europe and the Americas get some significant weather shifts with some changes in prevailing wind directions, but they don't quite qualify as monsoons.

Answer 2

Monsoons are very common in South and Southeast Asia, including countries like India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the Philippines. These regions experience heavy rainfall and strong winds during the monsoon season, which typically lasts from June to September.