6 Factors Affecting Climate of India

6 Factors Affecting Climate of India

In this article, we are going to quickly understand what are the factors affecting India’s climate. Now generally speaking, i am not just talking about India, there are six major components that controls the climate of any place. They are: latitude, altitude, pressure and wind system, distance from the sea, ocean currents and relief features. Let’s understand each one of them.

6 Factors Affecting Climate of India

1. Latitude :- Due to the curvature of the earth, the amount of sun rays that falls on earth varies depending on the latitude. That’s why you will see the temperature decrease as we go away from the equator towards the poles.

2. Altitude :- Altitude means height. The more you go above the ground that is from the surface of the earth to higher altitudes the temperature decreases. Because the concentration of air molecules decreases, we also call it as thin air. That’s why when you go to hill stations its cool out there.

3. Pressure and wind system :- By pressure we mean high and low pressure system. Always remember air moves from high pressure to low pressure area. The best way to understand this, i have given this illustration before so i am going to use it again.. switch on the AC in your room and leave the door open. You will feel the cool air going out of the room and this is because the environment outside your room in warm and its attracting the cooler air molecules towards it. Hence by this example you can also understand this, landmass gets heated up faster than water bodies. And due to that a low pressure zone is created at the land surface. Which attracts cool air molecules from the sea or ocean causing rainfall and changes in the temperature.

4. Distance from the sea :- Now if you are residing at coastal area, you will notice there is hardly any change in the weather condition. I mean you will be constantly facing the wind from the sea so there isn’t going to be much differences in the weather condition. But as you move away from coastal areas towards central part of the landmass you will start to witness extreme weather changes like very hot during summers and very cold during winters. This condition is known as continentality.

5. Ocean currents :- It is a continuous movement of ocean water. Ocean currents are created by natural factors like wind, temperature of water, salt content, and the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon. Generally there is two types of ocean currents, cold and warm currents. So the theory is, these warm and cold currents influence the local winds of the nearby landmass and causes change in the climatic conditions. For eg. With warm currents the landmass faces warm & humid climate.

6. And the last factor is Relief features :- In geography the meaning of relief is typical high and low lying areas like :- mountains, plateau, plain, desert etc... High mountains act as barriers for cold or hot winds, just like we have the Himalayas that protect us from the cold chilly wind of the arctic. And it is also due to these mountains precipitation takes place. One such e.g. would be the mountains of western Ghats that lie in the path of the rain bearing southwest monsoon winds.

So these were the six factors that affects the climate of India not just India any place on earth.

You can also watch the video explaining this concept here:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTrJC7_nKkA