Indian Climate

Introduction 

Temperature, wind, pressure, precipitation, and humidity connect. These factors are highly responsible for the change in the atmospheric conditions, such as the wind directions, rainfall, cloud cover, insolation amount, and, lastly, wind velocity. All of these are a part of the Indian climate and weather. Although, the influence can vary based on factors like time and place.  Although we as familiar people have the tendency to describe this change as “weather,” including hot, sunny, cold, fine, warm, etc.

Weather Forecast

• Understanding the coming weather is always an added advantage. That is why newspapers forecast weather reports highly, as people like to know things in advance
• Since technology has improved and better forecasts have been introduced, the changing weather conditions or temperature can be viewed at any time of the day 
• With the help of regular observations and atmospheric changes, the weather forecast office makes fact-based assumptions 
• The data collected is thoroughly analyzed, through which the weather is forecasted

Seasons

• Depending upon the changing atmospheric conditions, a year contains four major seasons in India. A season can be defined as a particular weather condition that occurs due to the continuous revolution of the earth
• These four Indian seasons are summer, autumn, spring, and winter 
• According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the four seasons occur for three months, each of which is a cold-weather season, rainy season, hot season, and retreating monsoons 
• The equatorial region experiences a constant temperature throughout the year as the sun rays are more or less directly on the equator. Therefore, there’s no significance of seasons in India near the equator However, there are two long seasons in the Polar region, including the short summers and long winters

Factors Affecting Climate

Latitude or in other words Distance of a location from Equator

• Places situated close to the equator are comparatively warmer than areas located at a distance that majorly affects the Indian climate. This happens because of the sun rays, which fall vertically straight on the equator

Altitude or the Elevation from the mean sea level

• This is the reason why mountains are way cooler than the plains. The altitude of the place highly influences the temperature of a place
• E.g., Shimla is located at a higher altitude. Therefore it’s comparatively cooler than Delhi 
• Continentality, or in other words, the distance of a location from the Sea
• Undoubtedly, water is a poor conductor of heat. Hence, it takes time for water to heat or to cool down. Because of this effect, places nearer to the coast experience high humidity and low temperature
• Places that are away from the seashore have a higher diurnal temperature range

Ocean Currents 

• To balance the water density and the temperature, the ocean water moves at a rapid speed from one place to another
• The temperature increases due to the warm ocean currents. It also leads to heavy rainfall and fog near the coast

Direction of Mountain Chains 

• The natural barrier of the winds is the mountain chains. Onshore winds, which are moisture-laden, are forced to go up after striking the mountain. These contribute to hefty rainfall

Slope and the Aspect 

• Since the heat concentration is higher on gentler slopes, the air temperature automatically increases

Nature of the Soil and Vegetation Cover

• The soil’s nature is highly determined by its texture, composition, and structure
• The black clay soils absorb the heat; however, the stony soils are great heat conductors. Note, if the surface is bare, it radiates heat faster and effortlessly. The deserts are generally found cold during nights and hot on day

Factors Affecting India’s Climate

The climate of a country depends on several factors like location, latitude, altitude, size, wind, distance from the Sea, location of hills and mountains, etc. The influence of these factors on the climate of India is concisely described below: 

• Location: The Tropic of Cancer crosses from the middle of India. The temperate belt consists of the country’s north; however, the south lies in the tropical belt. The Himalayas put the barrier on the northern wall, which prevents cold winds from entering the northern hemisphere. As a result, north India experiences fewer winters as compared to other parts of the country 
• Altitude: Although the temperature in India is generally high, all thanks to the altitudinal effect, the temperature falls considerably in the Himalayas, even during summers 
• Distance from the Sea: The ocean winds subtly affect the temperature. Therefore, the coastal places experience winters during all seasons in India 
• Winds: The weather conditions and associated Indian climate are determined by several atmospheric conditions, including Upper air circulation, tropical cyclones, Pressure and surface winds, and Western cyclonic disturbances. These effects are felt massively 
• Alignments of mountains and hills: The South-West Monsoon in India is packed with moisture; therefore, it results in heavy rainfall whenever they come in contact with mountains. This is also one major reason why the Cherrapunji-Mawsynram area is the most precipitated area in the world

Factors Related to Air Pressure and Wind

To understand the differences in local Indian climates, the mechanism of the following three factors are needed to be understood. 

• Distribution of winds and air pressure over the earth’s surface
• In the winter season in India, the Inflow of western cyclones is known as disturbances 

Jet Streams

• Jet streams are proportionately narrow bands of strong winds prevailing in the atmosphere. In jet streams, the wind blows from west to each other, but they can change their course and shift to the north and south. These winds are not hot or cold
• This appears due to the differences in temperature. The temperature differences result in a gradient, a horizontal pressure that brings gradient winds and geostrophic. With the increasing difference in the flat temperature, jet streams become stronger
• The subtropical jet stream is another separate system situated above the high-pressure belt. A third system takes place over India, Southeast Asia, tropical Africa, and the Arabian Sea during summers

Conclusion:

Climate and weather witnesses significant impact on living beings either plants, animals, or human beings. So, you must have a good idea of different aspects of Indian weather and climate. This post targets similar information that gives all meaningful insights on India’s climate.