I have been told of "Typhoons" and "Moonsoons" in the Philippines. What are the differences in them??

Question

Are there bad storms from the "Southwest" and then from the "Northeast"??? I want to have a sailboat in Cebu City. What weather should I look out for??

Answer 1

I'm not a meteorologist but I'll try to differentiate them:

Monsoons are seasonal winds which last for several months. These are annual cycles of strong winds. These are winds blowing from the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.

Northeast Monsoon occurs from Dec. to March

Southwest occurs from June to September.

They only differ in terms of the direction from where they are coming from. Better ask an expert on this

A Typhoon however is the Pacific term for a tropical cyclone or a Hurricane formed from the Pacific Ocean. Not advisable to go out and sail since monsoon rains bring out heavy precipitation and very strong gusts. This is the time of the year where typhoons are prevalent so if you go out and sail, take extra pre-caution.

There is a typhoon in the northern part of the Philippines (Igme) and although it hasn't made landfall, it is magnifying the monsoon winds by pulling it upward

Answer 2

Monsoons

The "Monsoon", from the Arabic "mauism" meaning "season", defines a wind that changes direction with the seasons. Monsoons develop as a result of changing patterns of atmospheric pressure caused by the varied heating and cooling rates of continental landmasses and oceans. The strongest and most well known monsoons are those which affect India and Southeast Asia. The summer monsoon, which blows southwesterly across the Indian Ocean, is extremely wet. The winter monsoon, in contrast, blows northeasterly and is generally dry.

India and Southeast Asia lie in between the centres of the tropical and subtropical climate zones. For much of the year, and particularly during winter, northeast trade winds blow across the region, from subtropical high pressure to equatorial low pressure. These winds originate from the continental interiors and are generally dry. During the summer months however, the large landmasses of Asia and the Indian subcontinent heat up, generating a seasonal continental region of low pressure. Airflow reverses and wind blows southwesterly across the Indian Ocean, accumulating considerable moisture which is deposited as heavy rainfall during the wet season from May to September.

Scientists have linked the development of the monsoonal wind phenomenon over India during Earth History to the uplift of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, which occurred about 20 million years ago, when India collided into the Asian continent.

Typhoons

The word describes a weather phenomenon in which the wind blows around a low pressure area. In the same family with typhoons are whirlwinds, tornadoes and waterspouts. But the typhoon is the largest of them all in breadth, in height and in wind velocity. Indeed, when the wind speed is in excess of seventy-five miles per hour, that is a typhoon. Similar storms are called “hurricanes” in the Caribbean area and the eastern part of the United States.

When one considers the tremendous energy that is released by a typhoon, one cannot help wondering where it all comes from. The answer is that it comes from water vapor. Just think of it in this way: Much heat is required completely to evaporate a kettle of water on a stove. All that heat is then locked, so to speak, in the water vapor. The energy absorbed during the process of evaporation could now be released if we caused the same amount of water vapor to condense back into the liquid state.

Answer 3

I was a tropical weather forecaster in the navy for over 20 years.

A monsoon is simply a seasonal wind.  The northeast monsoon sets up during the winter.  It brings cool, dry winds over Southeast Asia and India.  This is due to the subtropical high in the North Pacific shifting equator ward.

The southwest monsoon is a summer event.  It's caused by a chain of thermal low pressure systems that setup across North Africa, the Middle East, Himalayan Mountains, Southern China and South East Asia.  The North Pacific subtropical high moves significantly northward.  This southwest wind carries copious amounts of hot, moist unstable air over Southwest Asia, Southern Asia and Southeast Asia.

A typhoon is a low pressure system that forms in the tropics.  It's just like a hurricane.  Typhoons can form at any time of the year but are predominately a summer feature.  They generally move from east to west.  If there's a weakness in the subtropical high a typhoon can slip to the north.  This is called recurvature.  When typhoons recurve they generally strike Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.