Every year, when June and July arrive, the weather in Maldives changes dramatically. Dark clouds gather, heavy rains fall, strong winds blow, and occasional thunderstorms sweep across the islands. Locals call this period “Joonjulaa” (ޖުންޖުލާ), which marks the peak of the rainy season. Maldivians link this weather to the traditional Nakaiy calendar, especially the Funos and Fus periods. But what causes this seasonal change? Why do these months bring such intense weather? In this article, we’ll look at what drives Joonjulaa, focusing on the Southwest Monsoon. We will explore how modern science connects with traditional Maldivian observations.
The Southwest Monsoon: A Regional Weather Engine
The Southwest Monsoon (ހުޅަނގު މޫސުން) drives the rainy season in Maldives. It’s a seasonal wind system that dominates South Asia from early May to late October. The monsoon begins with a fundamental process: the intense heating of the Indian subcontinent during summer. As the sun’s heat falls on India, the land heats up much faster than the surrounding Indian Ocean. This creates a significant temperature difference between the land and sea.
Hot air over India rises because it is less dense, creating an area of low atmospheric pressure. This difference pulls in cooler, moist air from the Arabian Sea to fill the gap. The airflow moves from the southwest, crossing the Arabian Sea and sweeping over Maldives before reaching India. Since Maldives lies directly in its path, the islands experience heavy rainfall and stormy conditions during the Joonjulaa period.
How Rain, Wind, and Thunderstorms Form
The moist air carried by the Southwest Monsoon (ހުޅަނގު މޫސުން) is the key ingredient for the weather Maldivians experience during Joonjulaa. As this air moves over the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, it picks up water vapor through evaporation. When this humid air reaches Maldives, it encounters various atmospheric conditions that trigger rain, wind, and thunderstorms.
Rain forms when the moist air rises, cools, and condenses into clouds. The tiny water droplets in these clouds combine, becoming heavy enough to fall as rain. Maldives, being a low-lying island nation, doesn’t have mountains to force air upward, but the warm ocean waters and local weather patterns encourage this rising motion. The result is frequent and heavy downpours.
Winds during Joonjulaa are often strong and gusty because the pressure difference between the Indian subcontinent and the ocean drives powerful air currents. These winds can whip up the sea, creating rough conditions for fishermen and travelers. Thunderstorms occur when warm, moist air rises rapidly, forming towering cumulonimbus clouds. These clouds can produce lightning, thunder, and intense bursts of rain, often accompanied by strong winds. Satellite images of the region during this period often show a spiral of clouds over India, with a tail-like band of clouds extending over Maldives, illustrating the monsoon’s reach.
Origins of the Nakaiy Calendar
Maldivians have long observed the rhythms of the weather through the Nakaiy calendar, a traditional system dividing the year into 27 periods, each lasting about 13–14 days. The Joonjulaa period aligns closely with the Funos nakaiy and Fus nakaiy, which occur around June and July. These periods are historically associated with heavy rain, strong winds, and turbulent seas. These are observations that align remarkably well with modern meteorological understanding.
The Nakaiy system has its roots in ancient South Asian astronomy, particularly the 27 “nakshatra” or lunar mansions of Vedic India. It was brought and adapted by early seafarers and blended with Maldivian knowledge of seasonal winds, fishing cycles, and sea conditions. Over time, it became a unique local weather calendar completely tuned to the Maldivian environment. While its structural origins are connected to systems historically linked to Hindu cosmological beliefs, the Nakaiy calendar as used in Maldives today functions only as an observational tool based on local weather patterns. It is generally understood that observing seasonal patterns, like those in the Nakaiy system for practical purposes such as weather or sea conditions does not conflict with Islamic belief, so long as one does not attribute power or causality to the stars or calendar periods themselves. Doing so would contradict the concept of Tawhid (the Oneness of Allah), which teaches that only Allah controls all outcomes in the Universe.
In a Qudsi Hadith The Prophet ﷺ said: (mentioning what our Lord has said)
“This morning one of my servants became a believer in Me and one a disbeliever. As for him who said: ‘We have been given rain by virtue of Allah and His mercy’, that one is a believer in Me, a disbeliever in the stars; and as for him who said: ‘We have been given rain by such-and-such a star’, that one is a disbeliever in Me, a believer in the stars.”(Recorded in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim)
Therefore, as a tool for understanding the patterns Allah has created in nature, the Nakaiy system remains an important part of how Maldivians engage with their environment in a way that is consistent with their faith.
Conclusion
The rainy and stormy weather of Joonjulaa in June and July is an amazing spectacle driven by the Southwest Monsoon. The heating of the Indian subcontinent creates a low-pressure system that draws moist ocean air over the Maldives, leading to heavy rain, gusty winds, and thunderstorms. Understanding this process helps one understand why these weather patterns occur and how traditional systems like Nakaiy correspond to the natural atmospheric dynamics shaping Maldives’ climate.