Indian Climate Englishmediumby Vreddy

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 17

Indian Climate – Seasons

• The cold weather season or winter season,


• The hot weather season or summer season,
• The south-west monsoon season or Rainy season, and
• The season of the retreating monsoon or cool season.

Winter Season in India


• November – March. January is the coldest month.
• Sun’s apparent path is to the south of equator.
• Clear sky, pleasant weather, low temperature, low humidity, high range
of temperature, cool and slow north-east trade winds.
• The diurnal range of temperature, especially in interior parts of the country, is
very high.

Temperature in Winter Season


• The isotherm of 20°C runs roughly parallel to the Tropic of Cancer.
• To the south of this isotherm the temperatures are above 20°C. Here there is
no distinctly defined winter weather. Some parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu
typically experiences temperatures near 30°C.
• To the north mean temperatures are below 21°C and the winter weather is
distinct.
• The mean minimum temperature is about 5°C over north-west India and 10°C
over the Gangetic plains.
• Dras Valley in Kashmir is the coldest place in India. The minimum
temperature recorded at Dras was – 45°C in 1908.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
Pressure in Winter Season
• High air pressure prevails over large parts of north-west India due to low
temperatures coupled with divergence induced by the ridge of the STJ.
• Pressure is comparatively lower in south India.
• The winds start blowing from high pressure area of north-west to low pressure
area of south-east. The wind velocity is low due to low pressure gradient.
• The path of the winds depend on pressure gradient and physiography.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
Western Disturbances in Winter Season
• The spell of fine weather over north-western and northern India is often
broken due to inflow of western disturbances.
• They intensify over Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana.
• They move eastwards across the sub-Himalayan belt up to Arunachal Pradesh.
• They cause light rain in the Indus-Ganga plains and snowfall in the Himalayan
belt.
• After the passage of the disturbance, widespread fog and cold waves lowering
the minimum temperature by 5° to 10°C below normal are experienced.
• Fog lowers visibility and causes great inconvenience for transportation.

Tropical Cyclones in Winter Season


• This is the season of least tropical cyclone activity.
• The frequency of tropical cyclones decreases with the advancement of the
season.
• This is due to low sea surface temperature and exit of ITCZ farthest south.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
• The storms which are born in the Bay of Bengal strike Tamil Nadu and bring
heavy rainfall.
• Some of them cross the southern peninsula over to the Arabian Sea.
• Some storms originate in the Arabian Sea and move towards either north or
west.

Precipitation in Winter Season


• The retreating winter monsoons pick up some moisture while crossing the
Bay of Bengal and cause winter rainfall in Tamil Nadu, south Andhra
Pradesh, south-east Karnataka and south-east Kerala (Usually in the first
weeks of November).
• The highest seasonal rainfall of about 75 cm between October and December.
• Most of it occurs along the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu and adjoining
parts of Andhra Pradesh. Thereafter, it gradually decreases.
• The western disturbances also cause a little rainfall in north-west India.
• The amount of rainfall gradually decreases from the north and north-west to
east (it is opposite in rainy season).
• The northeastern part of India also gets rainfall during the winter months.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
venkatareddy geography faculty
8919672425
Summer Season in India
• March to June.
• High temperature and low humidity are the chief characteristics.
• Sometimes referred to as pre-monsoon period.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
Temperature in Summer Season
• High sun’s insolation due to apparent movement of sun between the equator
and the Tropic of Cancer.
• The southern parts of the country are distinctly warmer in March and April
whereas in June, north India has higher temperatures.
• In March, the highest temperatures occur in the southern parts (40-45°C).
• In April the highest temperature of about 45°C is recorded in the northern
parts of Madhya Pradesh.
• In May the highest temperature shifts to Rajasthan where temperatures as
high as 48°C may be recorded.
• In June the maximum temperature is in Punjab and Haryana.
• The highest temperatures recorded are 50.5°C at Alwar on 10th May, 1956
and 50.6°C at Ganganagar on 14th June, 1935.
• The highest temperatures are recorded just before the onset of the southwest
monsoons (late May).
• The diurnal range of temperature is also very high. It may be as high as 18°C
in some parts.
• The maximum summer temperatures are comparatively lower in the costal
and southern peninsular regions due to moderating effect of the sea.
• The temperatures along the west coast are comparatively lower than those
prevailing on the east coast due to the prevailing westerly winds.
• There is large contrast between land and sea temperatures.
• Northern and central parts of India experience heat waves in this season.
[A heat wave is an abnormally high temperature experienced by a regions.
Temperature increase of the order of 6° to 7°C above normal is termed as ‘moderate’
and 8°C and more as ‘severe’ heat wave]

• Most of the heat waves develop over Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana (location
far away from the sea). From here they spread over Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• The strong north westerly winds (caused due to strong divergence in north-
west India) with a long land journey over hot regions check the onward march
of the sea breeze over eastern coastal belt and create heat wave conditions
over Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
• The heat waves strike by the end of April and their maximum occurrence is in
May. They last till the onset of southwest monsoon.
• The normal duration of heat waves is 4 to 5 days. However, heat waves are
rare over the peninsula south of 13°N latitude due to maritime conditions
prevailing there.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
Pressure in Summer Season
• The atmospheric pressure is low all over the country due to high temperature.
• But strong dynamically induced divergence over north-west India prevents the
onset of south-west monsoons.

Winds in Summer Season


• There is a marked change in the direction and speed of the winds from winter.
• The winds are by and large light and variable.

Loo

• Loo winds originate over Iranian, Baloch and Thar deserts.


• In May and June, high temperature in northwest India builds steep pressure
gradient.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
• Hot, dust laden and strong wind known as loo blows.
• Loo normally starts blowing by 9.00 A.M., increases gradually and reaches
maximum intensity in the afternoon.
• It blows with an average speed of 30-40 km per hour and persists for days.

Andhis

• The strong dust storms resulting from the convective phenomena are locally
known as andhis (blinding storms). They move like a solid wall of dust and
sand.
• The wind velocity often reaches 50-60 kmph and the visibility is reduced to a
few metres.
• Such dust storms are common in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu region,
Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
• They are short lived. The squall and showers which follow these storms bring
down the temperature sharply temporarily.

Frontal Thunderstorms in Summer Season


• The strong convectional movements related to the westerly jet stream lead to
thunderstorms in eastern and north-eastern part of the country.
• They normally originate over Chota Nagpur plateau and are carried eastwards
by westerly winds.
• The areas with highest incidence of thunderstorms are Assam, Arunachal
Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, West Bengal and
the adjoining areas of Odisha and Jharkhand.

Norwesters and Thunderstorms in Summer Season


• In West Bengal and the adjoining areas of Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam, the
direction of squalls is mainly from the northwest, and they are
called norwesters.
• They are often very violent with squall speeds of 60 to 80 km per hour.
• Hailstones sometimes accompany showers and occasionally attain the size of
a golf ball.
• They cause heavy damage to standing crops, trees, buildings, livestock and
even lead to loss of human lives.
• However, they are, sometimes, useful for tea, jute and rice cultivation. In
Assam, these storms are known as ‘Barodoli Chheerha’.
• The period of maximum occurrence of these storms is the month of Vaisakh
(mid-March to mid-April) and hence, they are locally known
as Kalabaisakhis, the black storms or a mass of dark clouds of Vaiasakha.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
Convectional Thunderstorms in Summer Season
• In the south the thunderstorms occur in Kerala (Mango Showers) and
adjoining parts of Karnataka (Blossom Showers) and Tamil Nadu,
particularly during evenings and nights.

Western Disturbances in Summer Season


• Their frequency and intensity gradually decrease with advancement of
summer.
• Approximately 4, 3 and 2 western disturbances visit north-west India in March,
April and May respectively.
• They cause snowfall in higher reaches of the Himalayas.

Tropical Cyclones in Summer Season


• Tropical cyclones originate in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea.
• A few cyclones are formed in the Bay of Bengal in the month of March but
they do not affect the mainland of India.
• Their frequency rises steeply in April and the number of cyclones originating
in May is more than double than those originating in April.
• About three-fourths of the tropical cyclones are born in the Bay of Bengal and
the rest originate in the Arabian Sea.
• Most of the depressions in April originate to the south of 10°N while those
originating in May are born to the north of this latitude.
• Most of the storms of this season initially move west or north-west but later
they recurve northeast and strike Bangladesh and the Arakan Coast of
Myanmar.
• Very few hit Indian coast while some dissipate over the sea itself.
• The whole of the east coast of India, the coastal areas of Bangladesh and
Arakan Coast of Myanmar are liable to be hit by tropical storms in May.
• Many of them are quite severe and cause heavy damage to life and property.
• In the Arabian Sea, major storms are formed in May between 7° and 12° N
latitudes.
• Most of them move away from the Indian coast in a north-westerly direction
and dissipate in the sea.
• Few originate close to the Indian coast. They move towards the north-east and
hit somewhere along the west coast of India.

Precipitation in Summer Season

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
• This season is not totally rainless (only one per cent of the annual rainfall).
• In the northeastern parts of the country, dust storms bring little rainfall.
• The precipitation in Kashmir is mainly in the form of snow caused by western
disturbances.
• The norwesters bring some rainfall in Assam, West Bengal and Odisha. The
intensity of rainfall is high.
• The rainfall brought by the norwesters is known as the spring storm showers.
• This small amount of rainfall is very useful for the cultivation of tea, jute and
rice and is known as tea showers in Assam.
• Coastal areas of Kerala and Karnataka receive rainfall from thunderstorms.
• Such showers are called mango showers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
because they are very beneficial to mango crop.
• In Karnataka they are called cherry blossoms due to their effect on the coffee
plantations.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
venkatareddy geography faculty
8919672425
What is the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)?
▪ IOD or Indian Nino:
o IOD, sometimes referred to as the Indian Nino, is
similar to the El Nino phenomenon, occurring in
the relatively smaller area of the Indian Ocean
between the Indonesian and Malaysian coastline
in the east and the African coastline near
Somalia in the west.
• The El Nino is the warmer-than-normal
phase of the El Nino Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, during
which there are generally warmer
temperatures and less rainfall than
normal in many regions of the world,
including India.
o One side of the ocean, along the equator, gets
warmer than the other.
o IOD is said to be positive when the western side of
the Indian Ocean, near the Somalia coast,
becomes warmer than the eastern Indian Ocean.
o It is negative when the western Indian Ocean is
cooler.
▪ Mechanism:
o Negative IOD:
o The air circulation in the Indian Ocean basin
moves from west to east, that is from the African
coast towards the Indonesian islands, near the
surface, and in the opposite direction at the upper
levels. That means the surface waters in the
Indian Ocean get pushed from west to east.
• In a normal year, warmer waters in the
western Pacific near Indonesia cross
over into the Indian Ocean and make that
part of the Indian Ocean slightly warmer.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
That causes the air to rise and helps the
prevailing air circulation.
o In the years when the air circulation becomes
stronger, more warm surface waters from the
African coast are pushed towards the Indonesian
islands, making that region warmer than usual.
This causes hotter air to rise, and the cycle
reinforces itself.
o This is the state of negative IOD.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
▪ Positive IOD:
o Air circulation becomes slightly weaker than
normal. In some rare cases, the air
circulation even reverses direction. The
consequence is that the African coast becomes
warmer while the Indonesian coastline gets
cooler.
• A positive IOD event is often seen
developing at times of an El Nino, while
a negative IOD is sometimes associated
with La Nina.
o During El Nino, the Pacific side of Indonesia is
cooler than normal because of which the Indian
Ocean side also gets cooler. That helps the
development of a positive IOD.

▪ Impact of IOD:
o In the Indian Ocean, IOD exhibits an ocean-
atmosphere interaction that closely resembles the
fluctuations observed during El Niño events in
the Pacific Ocean. However, the IOD is
considerably less powerful compared to El Niño,
resulting in relatively minimal impacts.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
o A positive IOD helps rainfall along the African
coastline and also over the Indian sub-
continent while suppressing rainfall over
Indonesia, southeast Asia and Australia. The
impacts are opposite during a negative IOD event.
▪ Past Events:
o In 2019 the IOD event developed during the late
monsoon but was so strong that it compensated
for the deficit rainfall during the first month of the
monsoon season (June had 30% deficiency that
year).
• The deficit in June that year was
also attributed to a developing El Nino
but that fizzled out later.
What is ENSO?
▪ In a normal year, the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean, near
the northwestern coast of South America, is cooler than the
western side near the islands of Philippines and Indonesia.
o This happens because the prevailing wind
systems that move from east to west sweep the
warmer surface waters towards the Indonesian
coast.
▪ The relatively cooler waters from below come up to replace
the displaced water.
▪ An El Nino event is the result of a weakening of wind
systems that leads to lesser displacement of warmer
waters.
▪ This results in the eastern side of the Pacific becoming
warmer than usual. During La Nina, the opposite happens.
▪ Both these conditions, together called El Nino Southern
Oscillation (ENSO), affect weather events across the world.
▪ Over India, the El Nino has the impact of suppressing
monsoon rainfall.

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425
UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Question
(PYQ)
Q. With reference to ‘Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)’ sometimes mentioned in
the news while forecasting Indian monsoon, which of the following
statements is/are correct? (2017)

1. IOD phenomenon is characterised by a difference in sea surface temperature


between tropical Western Indian Ocean and tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean.
2. An IOD phenomenon can influence an El Nino’s impact on the monsoon.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Ans: (b)

venkatareddy geography faculty


8919672425

You might also like