Climates of India

India’s climates and seasons, the six ritus and the monsoon, the factors that shape climate, natural disasters, and climate change.

Key ideas

• Climate is the pattern of weather in a region over a long period, at least several decades.
• Latitude, altitude, distance from the sea, winds and the shape of the land all shape climate.
• Places nearer the Equator are warmer, and temperature falls as you go higher: Ooty is cooler than Coimbatore.
• The sea keeps coastal places like Mumbai moderate, so they have a smaller temperature range than inland Nagpur.
• The monsoon usually reaches the southern tip of India in early June; much farming depends on it, so a failed monsoon is serious.
• A city of concrete with little greenery can be warmer than the land around it (an urban heat island).
• Today’s climate change is mainly caused by burning fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
• Resilience is the ability of people and places to withstand a disaster and recover quickly.

Remember

Watch out

• Thinking two places at the same latitude must have the same climate: altitude and the sea matter too.
• Adding the temperature drop instead of taking it away when going higher.
• Getting the ritus out of order: varsha (rains) comes after grishma (summer).

Worked example