Maldives Climate
Climate
| Physiography
The temperature of Maldives ranges between 24°C and
33°C throughout the year. Although the humidity is relatively high, the
constant sea breezes help to keep the air moving. Two seasons dominate
Maldives' weather: the dry season associated with the winter northeast
monsoon and the rainy season brought by the summer southwest monsoon. The
annual rainfall averages 2,540 millimeters in the north and 3,810
millimeters in the south.
The weather in Maldives is affected by the large
landmass of the Indian subcontinent to the north. The presence of this
landmass causes differential heating of land and water. Scientists also cite
other factors in the formation of monsoons, including the barrier of the
Himalayas on the northern fringe of the Indian subcontinent and the sun's
northward tilt, which shifts the jet stream north. These factors set off a
rush of moisture-rich air from the Indian Ocean over the subcontinent,
resulting in the southwest monsoon. The hot air that rises over the
subcontinent during April and May creates low-pressure areas into which the
cooler, moisture-bearing winds from the Indian Ocean flow. In Maldives, the
wet southwest monsoon lasts from the end of April to the end of October and
brings the worst weather with strong winds and storms. In May 1991 violent
monsoon winds created tidal waves that damaged thousands of houses and
piers, flooded arable land with seawater, and uprooted thousands of fruit
trees. The damage caused was estimated at US$30 million.
The shift from the moist southwest monsoon to the dry
northeast monsoon over the Indian subcontinent occurs during October and
November. During this period, the northeast winds contribute to the
formation of the northeast monsoon, which reaches Maldives in the beginning
of December and lasts until the end of March. However, the weather patterns
of Maldives do not always conform to the monsoon patterns of the Indian
subcontinent. Rain showers over the whole country have been known to persist
for up to one week during the midst of the dry season.
Maldives consists of approximately
1,200 coral islands grouped in a double chain of twenty-seven
atolls. Composed of live coral reefs and sand bars, these
atolls are situated atop a submarine ridge 960 kilometers long
that rises abruptly from the depths of the Indian Ocean and
runs from north to south. Only near the southern end of this
natural coral barricade do two open passages permit safe ship
navigation from one side of the Indian Ocean to the other
through the territorial waters of Maldives. For administrative
purposes the Maldives government organized these atolls into
nineteen administrative divisions..
Most atolls consist of a large, ring-shaped coral
reef supporting numerous small islands. Islands average only one to two
square kilometers in area, and lie between one and 1.5 meters above mean sea
level. The highest island is situated at three meters above sea level.
Maldives has no hills or rivers. Although some larger atolls are
approximately fifty kilometers long from north to south, and thirty
kilometers wide from east to west, no individual island is longer than eight
kilometers.
Each atoll has approximately five to ten inhabited
islands; the uninhabited islands of each atoll number approximately twenty
to sixty. Several atolls, however, consist of one large, isolated island
surrounded by a steep coral beach. The most notable example of this type of
atoll is the large island of Fua Mulaku situated in the middle of the
Equatorial Channel.
The tropical vegetation of Maldives comprises groves
of breadfruit trees and coconut palms towering above dense scrub, shrubs,
and flowers. The soil is sandy and highly alkaline, and a deficiency in
nitrogen, potash, and iron severely limits agricultural potential. Ten
percent of the land, or about 2,600 hectares, is cultivated with taro,
bananas, coconuts, and other fruit. Only the lush island of Fua Mulaku
produces fruits such as oranges and pineapples partly because the terrain of
Fua Mulaku is higher than most other islands, leaving the groundwater less
subject to seawater penetration. Freshwater floats in a layer, or "lens,"
above the seawater that permeates the limestone and coral sands of the
islands. These lenses are shrinking rapidly on Male and on many islands
where there are resorts catering to foreign tourists. Mango trees already
have been reported dying on Male because of salt penetration. Most residents
of the atolls depend on groundwater or rainwater for drinking purposes.
Concerns over global warming and a possible long-term rise in sea level as a
result of the melting of polar ice are important issues to the fragile
balance between the people and the environment of Maldives in the 1990s.
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