The monsoon

Over the next few days, with all of the showers and thunderstorms we'll see across Colorado, you'll hear the term "monsoon" used a lot.

It does NOT, however, mean "buckets of rainfall". It comes from the Arabic word "mausim", which means season...so the monsoon is a seasonal wind.

In the summer, it blows from an ocean onto a continental landmass (such as the famous one that blows across south Asia). The air is coming from an ocean. It's warm and filled with water. Then it's forced to rise up the highest mountains on earth, the Himalayas, and produces huge amounts of rainfall. (Cherrapunji, India recorded almost 905 inches of rain one year during the summer portion of the monsoon).

The part of the story you don't usually hear is the winter version of the monsoon. Returning to south Asia, the winter flow is from Siberia towards the ocean. This is cold, dry air, and doesn't produce "buckets of rainfall".

In North America, we have "The Southwest Monsoon", as moist air flows from the ocean, across the southwestern deserts, eventually finding its way to Colorado. (Like the summer monsoon in Asia).

It usually begins in June, but it's a little early this year.