1) What is Climate?
Answer: Climate refers to the sum total of weather conditions and variations over a large area for a long period of time (more than 30 years).
2) What does 'weather' mean?
Answer: Weather refers to the state of the atmosphere over an area at any point in time.
3) What are the elements of weather and climate?
Answer: Temperature, atmospheric pressure, winds, humidity and precipitation are the elements of weather and climate.
4) What is the climate of India?
Answer: India's climate is described as a 'Monsoon Type' climate.
5) What is the variation of temperature in India?
Answer: In some parts of Rajasthan the highest temperature is 50oC and it is around 45oC at Drass in Jammu and Kashmir.
6) What is the variation of annual precipitation in India?
Answer: The annual precipitation is over 400 cms in Meghalaya and less than 10 cms in Ladakh and western Rajasthan.
7) Define the term 'Monsoon'.
Answer: The word monsoon is derived from the Arabic word 'Mausim' which literally means season. Monsoon refers to the seasonal reversal in the wind direction during a year.
8) Why air temperature decreases from the equator to polar?
Answer: Due to the curvature of the earth, the amount of total energy received varies according to latitude. As a result, air temperature decreases from the equator towards the poles.
9) Why hills are cooler during summer and people prefer to go to hill stations?
Answer: As one goes from the surface of the earth to higher altitudes, the atmosphere becomes less dense and temperature decreases.
10) What does the term 'Sentimentality' mean?
Answer: As the distance from the sea increases its moderating influence decreases and the people experience extreme weather conditions. This condition is known as sentimentality, i.e. very hot during summers and very cold during winters.
11) Which tropic passes just from the centre of India?
Answer: Tropic of Cancer.
12) Which surface winds are blowing from India?
Answer: India lies in the regions of northeasterly winds.
13) What is Coriolis force?
Answer: It is an apparent force caused by the earth's rotation. Coriolis force is responsible for deflecting winds towards the right in the northern hemisphere and towards the left in the southern hemisphere.
14) What do you know about 'South-Western Monsoon winds?
Answer: Air moves from the high-pressure area over the southern Indian ocean, in a south-easterly direction, crosses the equator, and turns right towards the low-pressure areas over the Indian subcontinent. These are known as South- West Monsoon Winds.
15) What are Jet Streams?
Answer: Jet streams are fast blowing winds moving in the upper air atmosphere.
16) What are subtropical westerly Jet streams?
Answer: The Jet streams are located approximately over 27o to 30o North Latitude, therefore they are known as subtropical westerly Jet streams.
17) In which parts of India subtropical westerly Jet streams blow?
Answer: Over India, these jet streams blow south of the Himalayas, all throughout the year except in summers. They are responsible for the western cyclonic disturbances in the north and north-western parts.
18) What are tropical easterly Jet streams?
Answer: An easterly Jet stream called the tropical easterly Jet streams blow over peninsular India, approximately are 14oN during the summer month
19) What are Western cyclonic disturbances?
Answer: The Western cyclonic disturbances are weather phenomena of the winter months brought in by the westerly flow from the Mediterranean region.
20) When does tropical cyclone occur in India?
Answer: Tropical cyclones occur during the monsoon as well as in October. These cyclones originate in the Bay of Bengal, hit the eastern coast of India and cause heavy rains causing damage to life and property.
21) Who noticed the phenomena of the monsoons in India?
Answer: The sailors who came to India in historic times were one of the first to have noticed the phenomenon of monsoon. They benefitted from the reversal of the wind system as they came by sailing ships at the mercy of the winds.
22) How differential heating and cooling of land and water help in understanding the mechanism of the monsoon?
Answer: Differential heating and cooling of land and water create a low pressure on the land of India while the seas around experience comparatively high pressure leading to the shifting of winds from south to north.
23) What do you understand by ITCZ?
Answer: It means Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. It is a broad trough of low pressure in equatorial latitude. This is where northeast and southeast trade winds converge.
24) How does the presence of high pressure in the east of Madagascar affect the Indian monsoon?
Answer: The presence of the high-pressure area, east of Madagascar approximately at 20oS over the Indian Ocean, its intensity and the position of this high-pressure area also affects the Indian monsoon.
25) What do you understand by the term SO?
Answer: SO means southern oscillation. Normally when the tropical eastern South Pacific ocean experiences high pressure, the tropical eastern Indian ocean experiences low pressure. This periodic change in pressure conditions is known as Southern Oscillation.
26) What is El Nino?
Answer: El Nino is a warm ocean current that flows past the Peruvian coast in place of cold Peruvian current every 2 to 5 years.
27) What does ENSO Mean?
Answer: ENSO is the combination of El Nino and the southern oscillation. The changes in pressure conditions are connected to El Nino, hence the phenomenon is referred to as ENSO.
28) What do you mean by 'Burst of Monsoon'?
Answer: Around the time of arrival of the monsoon the normal rainfall increases suddenly, and continues constantly, for several days. This is known as 'burst of the monsoon
29) Name the two branches of South-West Monsoons of India.
Answer:(i) Arabian sea Branch (ii) Bay of Bengal Branch
30) Name the four main seasons of India.
Answer: Four main seasons of India are:
(i) The cold-weather season
(ii) The hot weather season
(iii) The advancing monsoons
(iv) The retreating monsoons.
31) When do we experience the cold-weather season in India?
Answer: It begins from mid-November in northern India and stays till February.
32) What is the average temperature of North India and Coastal plains during winter?
Answer: The average temperature in coastal areas is between 24o - 25oC, while in the northern plains, it ranges between 10o to 15o Celsius.
33) Why winters in India experience a dry season?
Answer: During this season northeast trade winds prevail over the country. Since they blow from land to sea in most part of the country, it is the dry season.
34) What is 'Mahawat'?
Answer: The total amount of winter rainfall is locally known as 'Mahawat'.
35) In which months do we experience the hot weather season?
Answer: In the months of March, April, May and June, it is a hot weather season in India.
36) In which regions of India does 'Elongated low-Pressure Area' develop?
Answer: Towards the end of May an elongated low-pressure area develops in the region extending from the Thar desert in the northwest to Patna and Chotanagpur Plateau in the east and southeast.
37) What is 'Loo'?
Answer: These are strong gusty, hot dry winds blowing during the day over the north and northwestern India.
38) What is the effect of 'Dust storms' in India during summers?
Answer: Dust storms are very common during the month of May in northern India. These storms bring temporary relief as they lower the temperature and may bring light rain and cool breeze.
39) What is 'Kaal Baisakhi'?
Answer: Kaal means destruction or calamity brought in the month of Baisakh. It is known as Kaal Baisakhi. It occurs in West Bengal and is pre-monsoon showers.
40) What are 'Mango-Showers'?
Answer: Mango showers are the pre-monsoon showers taking place on the coast of Kerala and Karnataka. Since they help in the early ripening of mangoes, they are called Mango showers.
41) Which region of India receives the highest rainfall in the world?
Answer: Mawsynram in the southern region of Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, receives the highest average rainfall in the world.
42) What does 'breaks in rainfall' mean?
Answer: It means wet and dry spells of rain. The monsoon rainfall takes place only for a few days at a time, these rainless intervals in between are called "breaks in rainfall".
43) How do heavy floods occur during monsoons?
Answer: When the axis of rainfall shifts closer to the Himalayas, there are large dry spells in the plains and widespread rain occurs in the mountainous catchment areas of Himalayan rivers. These heavy rains bring devastating floods causing damage to life and property in the plains.
44) How is monsoon known for its uncertainty?
Answer: Monsoon is known for its uncertainty there are wet spells both and also these spells of rains vary in intensity frequency and duration.
45) What is 'October Heat'?
Answer: In the month of October monsoon winds retreat. It is marked by clear skies and a rise in temperature. Owing to the conditions of high temperature and humidity, the weather becomes rather oppressive during the day. This condition is called 'October heat'.
46) Differentiate between climate and weather.
Answer:
47) What type of climate does India have?
Answer:
48) Why does India have a monsoon type of climate?
Answer:
49) How does the latitude affect India's climate?
Answer:
50) How does altitude affect the climate of India?
Answer:
51) What is the Coriolis force? Describe its effect briefly on the world climate.
Answer: Coriolis force is an apparent force caused by the Earth's rotation. It is responsible for deflecting winds towards the right in the northern hemisphere and towards the left in the southern hemisphere. Under the effect of Coriolis force, the trade winds moving from sub-tropical high-pressure belts to equational low-pressure belts become north-east trade winds in the northern hemisphere and south-east trade winds in the southern hemisphere. As a result, they bring heavy rainfall to the east coast and the west coast remains dry.
52) What are western cyclonic disturbances?
Answer:
53) What are Tropical cyclones?
Answer:
54) Give a brief note on the 'Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone.
Answer:
55) Define Kaal Baisakhi and Mango Showers.
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56) How is monsoon known for its uncertainties?
Answer:
57) What do you understand by October Heat?
Answer:
58) Why are Thiruvananthapuram and Shillong rainier in June?
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59) Why is July rainier in Mumbai than in Thiruvananthapuram?
Answer:
60) Why are South West (S.W.) monsoons less rainy in Chennai?
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61) Why is Shillong rainier than Kolkata?
Answer:
62) How does Delhi receive more rainfall than Jodhpur?
Answer:
63) Why has Leh moderate precipitation almost throughout the year?
Answer: Leh is also called a cold desert.
64) What are the variations in Indian temperature?
Answer:
65) What are the variations in precipitation in India?
Answer:
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