Monsoons Trivia
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49 free Monsoons trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This monsoons trivia quiz covers the science and the geography of the world's great seasonal wind reversals. It starts with the basics: where the word comes from, why land heats faster than sea, what the Intertropical Convergence Zone does and why the Tibetan Plateau matters. Then it follows the South Asian monsoon from its June 1 arrival in Kerala up the Western Ghats and around the Bay of Bengal to the wettest places on Earth in the Khasi Hills, and back out again as the northeast monsoon that waters Tamil Nadu. Other questions cover the East Asian plum rains, the West African monsoon and the harmattan, Australia's Wet, the North American monsoon that turns Arizona skies black each July, and the ENSO and Indian Ocean Dipole patterns that decide whether India gets drought or flood. Numbers questions test rainfall records, the monsoon's share of India's rain and its grip on the economy. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our weather and India quizzes next.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Traditionally, how is a monsoon defined?
A seasonal reversing wind
A seasonal reversing wind, with matching changes in rainfall, is the traditional definition; in everyday use the word now also means the rainy season those winds bring.
Q 02The English word "monsoon" ultimately derives from an Arabic word meaning what?
Season
Season: monsoon goes back to Arabic mawsim, 'season', the word Arab sailors used for the fixed times of year when the Indian Ocean winds reversed.
Q 03Which language did "monsoon" pass through on its way from Arabic into English?
Portuguese
Portuguese sailors were the first Europeans to work the Indian Ocean trade winds regularly.
Q 04The migration of which atmospheric feature is now considered the driver of monsoons?
The Intertropical Convergence Zone
The Intertropical Convergence Zone, the tropical rain belt where the trade winds meet, swings north and south with the seasons; its migration over land is now viewed as the engine of monsoon rains.
Q 05Why do continents warm up more quickly than the sea in summer, setting up monsoon winds?
Land has a lower heat capacity
Land has a lower heat capacity than water, so the same sunshine warms it faster; the sea also mixes heat tens of metres down by convection, while rock and sand only conduct it slowly.
Q 06In summer, why does the air over heated land develop low pressure?
Warm air expands and rises
Warm air expands and rises over the heated land, so cooler, higher-pressure air over the ocean flows inland as a moist sea breeze on a continental scale.
Q 07Summer monsoon winds over India, West Africa and northern Australia share which dominant directional component?
Westerly
Westerly: India's and West Africa's summer monsoons blow from the southwest and northern Australia's from the northwest, so a westerly component is common to all; winter monsoons are mostly easterly and dry.
Q 08The strengthening of the Asian monsoon has been linked to the uplift of which highland region?
The Tibetan Plateau
The Tibetan Plateau, raised after India collided with Asia about 50 million years ago, heats the air above it each summer and is widely linked to a stronger Asian monsoon.
Q 09Which low-level wind, racing up the East African coast, feeds moisture into India's summer monsoon?
The Somali Jet
The Somali Jet, a low-level southwesterly jet hugging the Somali coast, crosses the equator and carries moisture from the southern Indian Ocean across the Arabian Sea into India each summer.
Q 10During which months does India's southwest monsoon occur?
June to September
It normally arrives at the end of May or start of June and fades in late September or early October.
Q 11Which arid region's summer heating creates the low pressure that draws the monsoon into India?
The Thar Desert
The Thar Desert of northwest India and Pakistan bakes in early summer, forming a deep low-pressure cell; moisture-laden winds from the Indian Ocean rush inland to fill it.
Q 12Which mountain range forces the monsoon winds to rise and drop their rain rather than pass into Central Asia?
The Himalayas
The Himalayas act like a high wall, forcing the winds to rise and drop their rain; some parts of the subcontinent receive up to 10,000 mm a year as a result.
Q 13Which Indian state is the first to receive rain from the southwest monsoon?
Kerala
Q 21What term describes the sudden switch to wet, humid weather when the monsoon arrives in India?
Bursting
Bursting: the 'burst' of the monsoon is the abrupt switch from hot, dry weather to rain and humidity when the moist winds arrive, which the jet-stream theory links to the westerly jet jumping north of the Himalayas.
Q 22By what other name is the northeast phase, when cold air sweeps towards the sea, known?
The retreating monsoon
The retreating monsoon: as the southwest monsoon withdraws, cold dry air sweeps off the Himalayas towards the sea, picking up moisture over the Bay of Bengal on the way.
Q 23Which Indian city is watered mainly by the northeast monsoon rather than the southwest one?
Chennai
The Arabian Sea branch hits the Western Ghats there first.
Q 14What is the normal date for the monsoon's onset over India, by the weather service's calendar?
June 1
June 1 is the India Meteorological Department's normal date for monsoon onset over Kerala, the first state to get the rains; the actual onset is declared each year when its criteria are met.
Q 15Into which two arms does the southwest monsoon split at the southern tip of India?
Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal
Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal: the Arabian Sea branch runs up the Western Ghats, while the Bay of Bengal branch swings around the bay towards the eastern Himalayas and the Ganges plain.
Q 16Which town on the southern slopes of the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya is one of the wettest places on Earth?
Mawsynram
Mawsynram sits on the rain-facing southern slopes of the Khasi Hills, where moist Bay of Bengal monsoon air is forced up the escarpment, giving it one of the highest average annual rainfalls ever measured.
Q 17What is the average annual rainfall of the Khasi Hills town reputed to be the wettest place on Earth?
11,872 mm
11,872 mm is Mawsynram's long-run annual average — nearly 12 metres of rain — though two Colombian towns, Lloró and López de Micay, dispute its claim to be the wettest place on Earth.
Q 18Which town, also called Sohra, holds the records for rain in a single month and year?
Cherrapunji
Cherrapunji, officially renamed Sohra, logged 26,461 mm in the twelve months from August 1860, the largest rainfall ever measured in a single year anywhere on Earth.
Q 19How much rain fell in the Khasi Hills in July 1861, the record for a calendar month?
9,300 mm
9,300 mm fell on Cherrapunji in July 1861 — more than 30 feet of water in 31 days — the greatest rainfall ever recorded in one calendar month.
Q 20Roughly what share of India's annual rainfall comes from the monsoon?
Nearly 80%
Nearly 80% of India's yearly rain falls during the June–September southwest monsoon, so a late or weak season cuts the sowing of rice, cotton and pulses across the country.
Chennai lies in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats during the southwest monsoon, so most of its rain comes from the northeast monsoon off the Bay of Bengal later in the year.
Q 24In which months does the northeast monsoon bring rain to southern India?
October to December
October to December: once the high-pressure system over the cooling northern landmass builds, northeasterly winds cross the Bay of Bengal and rain out over Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
Q 25What is the northeast monsoon called in the Philippines?
Amihan
Amihan is the Filipino name for the cool, dry northeast monsoon that blows across the islands in the northern winter; the wet southwest monsoon is the Habagat.
Q 26What is the East Asian summer rain belt called in China?
Meiyu
Meiyu (梅雨) is the Chinese name for the stationary front that soaks the Yangtze valley in June; Korea calls the same belt Jangma and Japan Bai-u or Tsuyu.
Q 27The East Asian monsoon's spring-summer rains are referred to in several languages as what kind of rain?
Plum
Plum rain: Chinese Meiyu and Japanese Bai-u both mean 'plum rain', as the front arrives when plums ripen; it moves north from Indochina in May to northern China and Korea by July.
Q 28Which dry, dusty trade wind is interrupted by the West African monsoon each summer?
The harmattan
The harmattan, the dry dusty northeasterly off the Sahara, gives way each summer to moist southwesterlies as the monsoon front pushes north over West Africa around late June, retreating south by October.
Q 29Which semi-arid African belt depends on the West African monsoon for most of its precipitation?
The Sahel
The Sahel, the semi-arid belt along the Sahara's southern edge, gets nearly all its rain from the West African monsoon, driven by the contrast between the hot Sahara and the cooler equatorial Atlantic.
Q 30During which months does the North American monsoon occur?
Late June to September
Late June to September: the North American monsoon builds over Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental in June and spreads into Arizona and New Mexico by early July, fading in September.