It didn't just rain. It poured . For weeks or months, the rain fell in relentless, torrential sheets. Rivers burst their banks. The land, which had been brown and dead, turned brilliant green overnight. Rice paddies flooded. Frogs sang everywhere.
The people there learned one simple truth: You must store the water of the wet season to survive the thirst of the dry season. what is tropical monsoon climate
For several months of the year, the winds came from the land. They blew from the northeast, carrying no moisture from the ocean. The sky was a deep, cloudless blue. The sun was fierce, and the earth cracked. The trees, desperate to survive, would often drop their leaves. This wasn’t a cold winter; it was a dry winter. Rivers shrank to muddy trickles. People prayed for the winds to change. It didn't just rain
Then, one day, the wind would flip . It happened suddenly. The winds now came from the southwest, across the warm Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. They were fat with water vapor. The sky turned the color of iron. The air grew heavy and still—then, the heavens broke. Rivers burst their banks