Wet Season

The endless showers, unstoppable and overwhelming, cause every mechanical device of man and every little voice in nature to go still and silent, forcing them to surrender to the simple power of sky and water. You can only hope that your home and your loved ones are not washed away and floating down some newly formed river that snakes through Main Street. The wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs, and is defined as a month where average precipitation is 60 millimetres (2.4 in) or more. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics and subtropics. Tropical rainforests technically do not have dry or wet seasons, since their rainfall is equally distributed throughout the year. When the wet season occurs during a warm season, or summer, precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon and early evening hours. The wet season is a time when air quality improves, freshwater quality improves, and vegetation grows significantly, leading to crop yields late in the season. Floods cause rivers to overflow their banks, and some animals to retreat to higher ground. Soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases. In areas where the heavy rainfall is associated with a wind shift, the wet season becomes known as the monsoon.