What are the rainfall patterns in South Asia’s coastal cities?

Step 1: Go to the ArcGIS Online map, Seasonal Differences and explore the map.

Step 2: With the Details button underlined, click the button, Show Contents.

Step 3: In the map, click the city of Mumbai, and then in the pop-up, scroll down and view the list of monthly and annual rainfall by millimeters.

Which month gets rainfall greater than (>) 50mm (millimeters) in Mumbai?
What is the highest monthly rainfall in Mumbai? Highest annual?

Step 4: Close the Identify pop-up window and click the coastal city of Mangalore, directly to the south of Mumbai.

Which months get rainfall > 50 mm in Mangalore? Highest monthly? Highest annual?

How does precipitation compare between coastal and inland cities in South Asia?

Step 5: Click the city of Bangalore, directly east of Mangalore?

What is the rainfall pattern in Bangalore?
How does that rainfall pattern of Bangalore compare with that of Mangalore?

Step 6: Click the Measure tool and measure the distance in kilometers between the two cities?

What is the distance between the two cities?

What does the physical geography look like between coastal and inland South Asian cities?

Step 7: In the Contents pane, check the Physical Features layer box to turn on the layer, and then click the Show Legend button.

The reason why Bangalore receives far less rainfall than the coastal city of Mangalore is that a narrow coastal mountain range separates the two cities and differences in precipitation result from the orographic effect (monsoon winds forced to rise over mountains, condense in the cooler upper atmosphere, and fall on the western side of the mountains. (T/F)

Step 8: Turn off the Physical Features layer and collapse the legend.

What is the pattern of yearly precipitation across South Asia?

Step 9: Investigate the precipitation of Kabul in Afghanistan and the eastern cities of Kolkata, India, and Dhaka, Bangladesh, using the previously learned methods?

Kabul has a long rainy season with significant annual rainfall, while Kolkata and Dhaka is extremely dry. (T/F)

What is the monsoon’s impact on agriculture in South Asia?

Step 10: Turn on the Yearly Rain South Asia and Sout Asian Agriculture layers and click the Show Legend buttons.

Step 11: Toggle between the two layers and observe which crops are grown in the areas with the most and least precipitation.

Crop farming is in the areas with moderate and higher rainfall, and grazing/herding and oasis agriculture are in the lowest amounts of rainfall.

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World Regional Geography Lab Manual Copyright © 2019 by R. Adam Dastrup, MA, GISP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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