Uzbekistan in the Asian Group of countries have the lowest annual total precipitation

(Figure 6.4).

According to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification and the UNCCC aridity

index (Türkeş, 2010, 2012), the climate of the Asia Continent in general is temperate,

mid-latitude and moist tropical and sub-tropical over the maritime eastern and south-

eastern regions, respectively; cold humid mid-latitude (and severe cold winters) in the

northern and north-eastern regions, and dry (cold and warm) across much of the interior

regions. The tropical monsoon circulation dominates across southern and south-eastern

regions of the Asia continent in summer. This is mainly due to the presence of the

Himalayas forcing the formation of a thermal low over these hot-summer southern land

regions associated with also seasonal shift of the inter-tropical convergence zone

towards north in the Northern Hemisphere summer, which draws in moist air masses

from the Indian and Pacific oceans during the summer (Türkeş, 2010). On the other

hand, the large Siberia region has the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere, and

can act as a source of dry and cold continental polar and sometimes extremely cold

continental Arctic air masses not only for the southern Asia and the Europe but also for

most regions of the Northern Hemispheric circulation and pressure patterns including

the North America (Öztürk et al. 2012). Also, one of the most vulnerable place on the

Earth in terms of the tropical cyclone (named geographically as tropical cyclone in the

Indian Ocean, and typhoon in the Pacific Ocean) activity lies northeast of the

Philippines and south of Japan.

Because the Asian monsoons may be classified into a few sub-systems, such as

the South Asian monsoon, which affects the Indian subcontinent and surrounding

regions, the Southwest Asian monsoon, which effects the Arabian Peninsula, the

Arabian Sea and the east Africa highlands, and the Southeast Asian monsoon, which

affects southern China, Korea and parts of Japan. Some of the Asian Group countries

are influenced by the South Asian monsoon and some by the Southeast Asian monsoon

during the warm and hot months of the years varying from the May to the October

(Türkeş, 2010; Türkeş et al., 2011).

Guyana and Suriname have a humid tropical climate and temperatures do not

vary much throughout the year because they are lying near the equator and