Test: Indian Climate - UPSC MCQ

Land heats and cools more rapidly than the sea. During the day the land gets heated and the air over the land being hotter and lighter than that over the sea, a low pressure area is created over the land. The hot air rises and cool air from the see ruches in towards the land, which is referred as sea breeze.At night the land rapidly loses its heat faster than the sea. The air over the sea is therefore warmer and lighter than over the land and a breeze blows but from the land towards the sea.

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), known by sailors as the doldrums, is the area encircling the earth near the equator where the northeast and southeast trade winds converge.

• During the hot weather period i.e from March to May the Eastern and North-eastern states of the subcontinent like West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha (parts) and Bangladesh experience a dramatic appearance of a special type of violent thunderstorm known as Nor’wester.

• In Bengal it is known as ‘Kal Baisakhi’ Apart from its destructive effects like a sudden rise in wind speed, lightning, thunder and hail the rainfall associated with the storm although small in amount, is extremely helpful for the pre-Kharif crops like jute, paddy, summer till and a large number of vegetables and fruits and the sudden drop in temperature gives relief after unbearable midday heat.

Due to rain shadow area of Sahyadrithe regions between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have become semi-arid.

India is located in the middle of the tropic of cancer.

 The rainfall distribution pattern over the Ganga basin decreases from the East to the West and South to North.