Desk sheet - Monsoon

Monsoon Weeks, Which Are Dust and Then One Hard Hour

Not a season of rain. A pattern of dust, a violent short burst, and dust again. It changes almost nothing about which stall you should book and one thing about how you should leave the car.

01The pattern, described honestly

From roughly early July to the middle of September the days build heat, wind picks up in the afternoon, dust moves, and some afternoons end in a burst of rain that is heavy, brief and over.

For a car standing in a lot the sequence looks like this: a fine film settles, a burst washes some of it into streaks, the sun dries it, and a new film settles. Repeat for as many weeks as your reservation lasts.

02What it does, part by part

What happens	What it actually costs the car	What to do about it
A fine film of dust on every surface	Nothing. It washes off	Wash it when you get home
Streaking where rain ran through dust	Nothing lasting. It also washes off	Same
Grit in the door seals and around the glass	Very little. Do not run a dry wiper across a dusty windshield	Wet the glass before the first wipe
Blowing dust during a wind event	Fine grit against paint. Over one stay this is not measurable	Nothing
A hard hour of wind and heavy water	Standing water in the lot, and anything loose moves	Windows fully closed. That is the whole of it
Standing water on unpaved ground	Soft ground and mud on the underside for a day	Ask for a paved or graded surface for a July or August stay

Shallow standing water and wet dust across a graded parking surface after heavy rain, painted stall lines visible through the water, low fence and dry brush at the edge, overcast sky, no vehicles, no people and no lettering — Standing water on a graded surface after a burst, of the type described. Illustrative of the kind of ground rather than a photograph of a named lot.

03The one thing that actually matters

Close the windows fully. Not cracked, not left an inch for air, not vented.

A cracked window in these weeks lets in dust for days and water for one hour, and the water is the part people do not think about. This is also the answer on the heat sheet, where the reason is wildlife rather than weather, and it is the rare case where the two pieces of advice agree.

04What it does not mean

It is not a reason to change your dates. The bursts are brief and localised, and a car sitting through six of them is a car that needs washing, which it needed anyway.

It is not a reason to buy shade. A canopy sheds direct sun, and in these weeks the sun is the bigger issue than the water. Book shade because of heat, not because of rain.

It is not a flood claim. Lots on the airport mile are graded and drain, and standing water after a burst is standing water rather than a flooded lot. If a lot genuinely floods, that is a question for the operator and one we would want to know the answer to.

05What we will not do about it

Nothing is washed while a car stands, no cover is fitted, and nothing is moved to a different surface without your say. It is one of the five refusals, and monsoon weeks are the second most common time it gets tested after heat.

If you want the car washed after a monsoon stay, that is a thing to do on the way home rather than a thing to arrange with us.

06What this means for the reservation you should make

Any length, July to mid September: close the windows completely, and take nothing seriously about dust.
A week or more in those months: ask for a paved or well graded surface rather than loose ground, which is a question about the lot rather than a grade of stall.
A month in those months: ask about shade for the heat reason, and expect to wash the car when you get home.

The calendar puts these weeks in context with the rest of the year.