Climate of India

India hosts six major climatic sub types, ranging from arid deserts in the west to alpine tundra and glaciers in the north. Many regions have starkly different microclimates, making it one of the most climatically diverse countries in the world. Ongoing and future vegetative changes, sea level rise and inundation of India’s low-lying coastal areas are also attributed to global warming.

About Climate of India in brief

The climate of India comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a vast geographic scale and varied topography. Based on the Köppen system, India hosts six major climatic sub types, ranging from arid deserts in the west, alpine tundra and glaciers in the north, and humid tropical regions supporting rain forests in the southwest and the island territories. Many regions have starkly different microclimates, making it one of the most climatically diverse countries in the world. Ongoing and future vegetative changes, sea level rise and inundation of India’s low-lying coastal areas are also attributed to global warming. Elevated atmospheric levels of sulphur gases formed aerosols such as sulphuric acid similar to those found in the atmosphere of Venus; these precipitated as acid rain. Elevated carbon emissions also contributed to the greenhouse effect that lasted long after atmospheric shroud of dust and aerosols had crashed, long after India had crashed into the Laurasian landmass. The Thar Desert in the northwest and the Himalayas in the northern part of India work in tandem to create a culturally and economically important monsoonal regime. Most parts of the nation don’t experience temperatures below 10 °C in winter, and the temperature usually tends to exceed 40 °F during summer. Such climatic events are likely to change in frequency and severity as a consequence of human-induced climate change. The country’s meteorological department follows the international standard of four seasons with some local adjustments: winter, summer, monsoon season, and a post-monsoon period.

India’s geography and geology are climatically pivotal: the Thar desert in the Northwest and the mountains of the north are key to the country’s climate. The same thermal dam keeps most regions in India hot in summer. Though the Tropic of Cancer—the boundary that is between the tropics and subtropics—passes through the middle of India, the bulk of the country can be regarded as climatically tropical. During the Mesozoic, the world, including India, was considerably warmer than today. With the coming of the Carboniferous, global cooling stoked extensive glaciation, which spread northwards from South Africa towards India; this cool period lasted well into the Permian. Tectonic movement by the Indian Plate caused it to pass over a geologic hotspot — the Réunion hotspot—now occupied by the volcanic island of Réunion. This resulted in a massive flood basalt event that laid down the Deccan Traps some 60–68 Ma, at the end of the Cretaceous period. More recently in the Holocene epoch, parts of India would otherwise have been much warmer and more tropical in winter than it otherwise would have been otherwise. This is underscored by India’s vast coal reserves—much of it from the late Paleozoic sedimentary sequence—the fourth-largest reserves in the World.

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