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The dry season is a designation used for areas experiencing a
period of time when conditions are normally
dry (less than 3 cm of
precipitation) and commonly used when describing the
weather in the
tropics.
The dry season is marked by months of
drought and fire is frequent.
Without the yearly drought and widespread fire, it is believed that
tropical grassland , savannas and
woodlands would eventually change
into tropical forests….In
climate characterized by a long dry
season trees have long
tap roots to reach the deep
water table, and thick
bark for resistance to annual
fires. They are
deciduous and lose their
leaves during the dry season, and may
use their trunks for water
storage.
Thorny,
spiny or
succulent
vegetation is sometimes
prominent. Most plants and
animals have a period of
dormancy (Aestivation)
during the month of high
temperature of the dry season.
The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which
oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of
the year. Near these latitudes, there is one wet season and one dry
season annually. On the
equator, there are two wet
and two dry seasons as the rain belt passes over twice a year, once
moving north and once moving south. Between the tropics and the equator,
locations may experience a short wet and a long wet season. Local
geography may substantially modify these climate patterns, however.
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