Abstract
Influenced by the Asian monsoon both in summer and winter, Cambodia has distinct rainy and dry seasons. The annual rainfall in inland Cambodia is approximately 1087–1528 mm and is much larger on the coast at nearly 4000 mm. Over inland Cambodia, approximately 5–20% of the annual rainfall occurs in March and April (pre-monsoon season), 50–78% occurs from May to September (summer monsoon season), and 12–36% occurs in October and November (post-monsoon season). The distribution of rainfall in Cambodia shows diurnal, intra-seasonal, and year-to-year variations with regional differences. Although being mainly controlled by the monsoons and other synoptic-scale atmospheric conditions, the effect of land surface heterogeneity such as topography and the existence of Tonle Sap Lake (TSL) is not negligible. The thermal contrast among different land surface types is known to generate local circulation such as land–lake and mountain–valley circulations, and their development has been recognized over and around TSL by both numerical simulations and ground observations. Especially during the post-monsoon season, predominant rainfall is recognized at night around the western shore of the lake, and approximately 30–40% of the post-monsoon rainfall is suggested to be induced by the local circulation.
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Tsujimoto, K. (2022). Climate and Rainfall. In: Yoshimura, C., Khanal, R., Sovannara, U. (eds) Water and Life in Tonle Sap Lake. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6632-2_6
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