India climate chart

A very rough pattern of climate in India. Use this to get only to get a global view of the seasons. This chart is a compilation of my empirical knowledge and some ‘research’! May be to a novice tourist this give a rough idea about when the summer starts and when the monsoon weaken?

I’ve used the state wise division from south to north. For simplicity I have used the old state divisions only. Anyway rain Gods doesn’t follow the orders of the administration!

A very large number of exceptions also to be assumed. Most of the states are stereotyped with a single weather pattern. For example in the same state the hill top area would have a different climate than the foothill or planes. So is with the coastal and interior parts of another state.

Also there are any number of small ‘pockets’ of rain shadow or cooler places even in the summer. A large number of tourist spots fall under this category.

Similarly many of the Northeastern states experience the hottest climate during the rainy season.

Beach is not God to predict weather in India! Otherwise the entire meteorological department staff would have lost jobs long back. CNN, BBC and other local TV crew chase clouds as if they are showing a coup in the brew. Checkout the weather of the place very closely to get the exact picture.

Who said the words “Bad weather always looks worse through a window”

The intensity of the shade indicates the strength of the weather.

Click here for a larger JPG image
or
Click here to down load a file of the chart in MS Excel format (attached with the 13th reply below)

Edit Note: - Edited to add link to largest chart.

That's a very useful chart, Beach!

It should answer a lot of the kind of queries we've been having on the forum recently.

Ideally it should be posted somewhere on the forum where it doesn't get submerged.

I'm not sure myself so ask indiamike if you can upload this file in its original format, presumably Excel97.

Also one question: what happens on the months with the blank cells? Is there no weather at all then; e.g Jan / Feb!!??

In Excel97 you would need to zip up the file and then attach it.

Mike

Jan,Feb are winder no guessing ..
Beach :seems eastern India is doesn't have summer at all ..?!!!
ok thast news to me Thanks for the chart.

I wonder what name to call those seasons.Many of the places it can be called winter.But what about the others? They are just sort of nutral weather, a bit colder . May be I'll call it all winter everywhere.

But then how will I face that friend who told me that the best summer she ever had in life was the winter in India

Let me think about it (in my sleep) and will come back with something feasible to upload (xls or zip).

we can call them "indian winter" (as oppose to "indian summer")

I'm frankly a bit perplexed with the NE weather.The hotest season for most of them happen during the rainy season!??

Also I'll have to split many states to explain the summer. Part of it is hot and part of it is cold at the same time. I did not want this to become a military grade complex chart!. If I start doing that I'm not sure where will I landup. Any way any ideas to tackle this is welcome.I'll modify it in the next 'edition' due soon!!.

All I would like to tell the readers is that NE area is one of the wettest and greenest in India. There are a few places in Assam where the average daily rainfall is much more than the total anual rainfall in the Britan!
Hot and humid is a combination make me jumb!!

Great job .. and great courage to take on the task.


Reminds me of my first time in the subcontinent , in Nepal : watching clouds moving fast ... in opposite directions at different altitudes.
I was wondering if it would be doable to split the info altitudewise.. but this would probably require a gargantuan webpage with sublinks.

People like sliced bread!! I’ll comeback with a modified chart later today. I’ve missed out Orissa
Steven….have you ever danced in the rain?? ….you’ll hate the summer.

Beach

I done a popular dance in Ko Lanta (Thailand) when a cloud decided to drop its entire contents in one go, I ran like hell for cover.

Except a few places in India the four seasons are not the right measure to classify the climate. Summer and winter are distinct with the monsoon in between. The vegetations don’t show any gradual change except that post monsoon it is greener. You always need to specify the time and exact districts to know the climate.

Monsoon doesn’t ‘happen’ like the winter. It travels from bottom to top of the country bringing rain along. There are two such distinct ‘waves of rain’.

The south-west monsoon hit the west cost by the first week of June and travel northward at a speed about 150 kilometers a day. It travels all the way up till it is stopped by the Himalayan mountain range. From there it bounces back and trace the same path southward. The remaining clouds are showered (weak though) again on the way back into the ocean.

Similarly the northeast monsoon appears at the Bay of Bengal during October and sweep through the west and northeast area.
For the northeastern states the rain is more or less a regular affair in comparison to the rest. There are only very brief period the rain totally recede. At least it drizzle regularly even during the off seasons. These region experience warm weather in the summer season also along with the rain. The costal India and all the northeastern states have the highest rainfall in India.
Temperatures vary drastically from winter to summer in the north India. For the south the variations are not as wide. For the costal areas the weather is a bit ‘sticky’ with sea breeze induced
humidity.

An MS excel file (zipped) of the climate chart is attached for those who want to tinker with it

File in Excel 2000

Good work beach the download works fine and I think a lot of people will find this a useful reference when planning their trips to India.

I note your point above regarding the four seasons, but still there must be a spring and autumn somewhere in India????



It's not too often I sing in public:

" Younger than springtime ... are you? Gaier than laughter ... are you? Angel and heaven ... dum de dum ... de da. Younger than springtime ... etc"

Hi fans,

Another little weather chart is at http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/s...php/photo/7621 . It dates to the early nineties so with global warming and whatnot... anyway hopefully useful