For six months it may be said the prevailing wind is the south-east,
followed by gentle breezes from the east and north-east. North-easters
begin in September and are intermittent until the beginning of the wet
season. The south-east monsoons are regular and consistent; the
north-east, which precede the rainy monsoon, fitful and wayward, never
continuing long in one stay, and lasting but four out of the twelve
months. Rare is the wind from the west, rarer from the south-west.
North-easters are a pronounced feature. They work up by diurnal and
easy grades from gentleness to strength, thunder coming as a climax.
After a succession of calm days and days of gentle breezes from the
east-south-east and east, the north-easter begins softly, and daily
gathers courage and assumption, to find in the course of a week or
two its haughty spirit subdued by thunder and rain showers. Calms
prevail for a few days. Easterly breezes come, to give way to the
north-east again, and so the programme is repeated with variations
which none may foresee, and which set at naught the lengthiest experience.
At last, at Christmas or the New Year, the rains come with a boisterous
beginning.
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