Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
WASHINGTON - U.S. and Mexican weather researchers are launching a study of the monsoons that can bring summer storms to parts of the two countries.
The North American Monsoon Experiment, announced Friday, is getting under way this month to help better understand the weather in northwest Mexico and the southwestern United States.
When the region warms in the hot summer months, rising air can help draw in moisture from the ocean, bringing rain and storms to the region. A better known monsoon occurs in India and Asia.
"The 2004 Field Campaign will improve our understanding of the daily cycle of precipitation in the complex terrain of the core monsoon region," said Wayne Higgins, lead scientist for the experiment and the principal climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center.
This year's field work involves scientists from more than 30 universities, government laboratories and federal agencies in the U.S., Mexico and Central America. It includes scientists from the National Weather Service as well as the National Science Foundation, NASA and the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Defense.