What is climate ?

Climate is commonly defined as the weather averaged over a

long period. The standard averaging period is 30 years. Climate also
includes statistics other than the average, such as the magnitudes of day-to-
day or year-to-year variations.

The word climate is derived from klima meaning “inclination”

referring to the major role of inclination of solar rays on the earth’s surface.
The etymology of the word reminds us the average temperature is also
affected by the natural cycle of our king, the sun.

Different types of climate

According to KOPPEN classification our earth’s climate is divided into
primary types:

 Tropical
 Dry
 Cold mild –latitude
 Mild mid-latitude
 Polar.

Which are further divided into secondary types :

 Rainforest
 Monsoon
 Tropical savanna
 Humid subtropical
 Mediterranean
 Oceanic
 Sub-arctic
 Steppe
 Tundra P IC
factors determining the climate of India
 MONSOON WINDS: There are two monsoon winds that blow
over India, one is the moist south west monsoon wind in the summer
and the other is the dry north east monsoon winds in winter. These
two different types of monsoon winds have been caused mainly
because of land and water contrast. The main land of the Indian
subcontinent and Asia get quickly heated in summer while the
surrounding extensive water in the south the Indian Ocean remains
cool in summer.

 NORTH - EAST MONSOON WINDS: In winter the land is

cooler in central and southern Asia compared to the oceans in the
south. Thus high pressure occurs over land while the oceans have low
pressure. Cool dry winds from the land move southward to the low
pressure in the seas. Due to the rotation of the earth the winds get
deflected to their right as according to ferret’s law, while moving from
the north to the south. Thus these winds from the north east monsoon
winds.

 South west monsoon winds: low pressure forms over

land in central and southern Asia in the summer season. Winds over
into this low pressure region from the adjacent high pressure region of
the Indian ocean. Due to the rotation of the earth these winds moving
from the south to the north are deflected to their right as according to
ferret’s law.

 LATITUTINAL LOCATION: The tropic of cancer (23.5°) passes

through the middle of India thus dividing India into the tropical
region to south of it and the subtropical and temperate region to the
north of it. This implies, the region south of the tropic of cancer is
warmer compared to the north as it nearer to the equator.
 Location of the Himalayas, western and
eastern Ghats : relief forms an important factor that affects
the climate of India. The high Himalayan Mountain in the north act
as a barrier to the south-west monsoon winds forcing the winds to
give most of its rainfall in India before crossing the Himalayas. The
cold winds in winter from central Asia are mainly obstructed from
coming into India by these high Himalayas.

 Altitude: temperature decreases with increase in height at the

rate of 6.5°C per 1000 meters difference in height. The high peaks of
the Himalayas are thus always covered by snow. Sheila is therefore
cooler than Delhi as it lies at a higher elevation. Ooty in the Nilgiris
in the Western Ghats is cool even in summer because of its height
though it lies near the equator.

 Distance from the sea: compared to land water takes

longer to heat or to cool. The peninsular of India is surrounded by
water in East, West and South. Therefore, compared to north india,
South india has a moderate climate. As north India lies far from the
sea the difference in summer and winter temperatures is very high.
The climate in north India is of extreme type.

 Desert region of rajas tan: in summer the desert

region of rajas tan experiences very high temperature creating a very
low pressure. This extreme low pressure attracts the monsoon winds
from the Indian Ocean. as the minds blow over the oceans they
become most and cause heavy rainfall over the hole of India

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 CLIMATIC CHANGE

the climate on earth has been changing since its formation. The change has
been due to volcanic eruptions, collisions with asteroids and the path of the
solar system through space. The climatic changes have affected the
atmosphere, the landscape and the living things.

Changes in the climate are not new. In fact, changes in climate are as old as
our planet. The overall tendency of the global temperature over the course
of geological time shows that the climate has been rather hot expect for the
5 ice ages. The last 1 of which is the quaternary era, in which we are
currently living.

However the current changes in climate cannot be considered as ordinary

because of its scale and rapidity, this warming of our climate can only be
described as extraordinary in the history of our planet.

The long term climate patterns can be affected by sudden events such as
huge volcanic eruptions or asteroids hitting the earth these events could
have filled the earth’s atmosphere with smoke and dust, which blocked out
the sunlight, making the climate cold and dark and killing plants.

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 History of climate change

 THE HISTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY OF CLIMATE

CHANGE began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other
natural changes in pale climate where suspected and the natural green
house effect first identified. In the late 19th century scientists first
argued that human emissions of green house gases could change the
climate. Many other theories of climate change are advanced,
involving forces from volcanism to solar variations in the 1960s, the
warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing.
Some scientists also pointed out the human activities that generated.

 During the 1970s scientific opinion increasingly favoured the warming

viewpoint. By the 1990, as a result of improving fidelity of computer
models and observational work confirming the Melankovitch theory
of ice ages, a consensus position form : green house gases where
deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emission
where bringing discernible global warming. Research during this
period has been summarised in the assessment reports by the
intergovernmental panel on climate change.

 Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical

distribution of weather patterns over period ranging from decades to
millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or
in the distribution of weather around the average conditions.

 Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes,

biotic processes, variations in solar radiations received by earth, plate
tectonics and volcanic eruptions and human induced alterations of the
natural world. The latter effect is currently causing global warming
and climate change is often used to describe human specific impacts.
  Paleoclimatology:

It is the study of past climate over a great period of the

Earth’s history .it uses evidence from ice sheets, tree rings, sediments, coral
and rocks to determine the past state of the climate. It demonstrates periods
of stability and periods of change and can indicate whether changes follow
patters such as regular cycles.

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Climate zone
The climate of a place is the long term pattern of weather in particular area.
It varies enormously in different parts of the world .climate determines the
character of an area, affecting the plants, animals and people, which live
there.


Tropical rainy climate zone: on kerala coast, Karnataka coast, goa
and northern part of konkan coast, Andaman and nicobar islands,
eastern Himalayan region barring areas of mountain climatic region,
Assam valley and plain region of west Bengal from the tropical rainy
climatic zone .the mean annual temperature varying from 18° C to
27°C and average annual rainfall exceeding 400 cm are the features of
this climate.
 Humid subtropical climate zone: Bihar, utter Pradesh, Jammu,
MadhyaPradesh, Chattisgarh, Oddisha, western Maharashrastra,
Uttarkhand, Himachal Pradesh, western West Bengal, Jharkhand fall
under humid subtropical climate zone. High temperature in summer,
 cold weather in winter and average annual rainfall varying from
150cm to 400 cm are usual. During hot and dry summer temperature
may rise maximum 46°C. Rainfall occurs during June to September.

 Tropical Savanna Climate zone: the leeward side of the Western

Ghats Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar
Pradesh and a large part of Deccan plateau experiences tropical
savannah climate. Long dry hot summers, cold winter, and the
average annual rainfall varying between 75 cm and 150 cm
characterised the climate of this region. In summer, temperature rises
up to 46°C. Winter temperature seldom falls below 18°C. Rainfall
during autumn and winter is the typical feature in the northern parts
of Tamilnadu coast.

 Steppe climate zone: the steppe region comprises eastern

Rajasthan, eastern slopes of Western Ghats, south east Punjab,
southern Haryana and western Gujarat. A type of continental climate
prevails here. Diurnal range of temperature is high annual rainfall
varies from 20 cm to 75 cm.

 Mountain climate zone: the mountain climate zone comprises the

entire Himalayan Mountains. The region stretches from Arunachal
Pradesh in the east to mountains of Jammu and Kashmir in the west.
The climate is characterised by long cold winter below zero degree
Celsius records that higher altitude. The eastern Himalayas receive
more rainfall than the western Himalayas. Snowfall is common

 Desert climatic zone: The Marusthali of Rajasthan is a sandy arid

land in western Rajasthan. It s India’s desert climatic zone. High
diurnal and annual range of temperature and very low rainfall
characterised the desert climate. The summer temperature rises over
48°C. January is the coldest month. No rainfall condition prevails
years together.
 Impact of climate change in economy
Vulnerability to climate change will mainly depend on economic position
and infrastructure capacity of nation. Climate change effects will impose
significant additional stress on ecological and socio economic system. But
currently these systems are burdened by pollution natural resources
scarcities and other unsuitable practices.

Technologically advanced Countries are prepared well for responding to

climate change, particularly by Developing and Establishing suitable policy,
institutional and social capable for dealing with the consequences. But, the
poor and developing countries are mostly affected by climate change,
because they are not having enough and sound technologies or scientific
development to deal with this impact.

In developing countries like India climate change is an additional burden

because ecological and socio economic systems are already facing pressures
from rapid population, Industrialization and economic development.
India’s climate could become warmer under conditions of increased
atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The average temperature change is predicted to be in the range of 2.33°C to

4.78°C with the doubling in CO2 concentration. The following sections
provide an overview of impact of climate change in various sectors.

Agriculture and food :

Agriculture production is direct dependence on climate change and

weather; it is widely studied sector in the context of climate change. The
possible change in temperature, precipitation and CO2 are expected to
significant impact on crop growth. So that overall impact of climate change
on worldwide food production is considered to be low to moderate with
successful adaptation and adequate irrigation, global agriculture production
could be increased due to doubling of CO2 fertilization effect.
There are two ways to climate change can affect the food production
system. One is direct and another one is indirect.

In direct changes through temperature, water balance and atmospheric

composition as well as extreme weather even and indirectly changes
through in the distribution, frequently and severity of pest and disease out
breaks, incidents of fire and in soil properties. These direct and indirect
effects on agricultural systems will not only responding to climate change
but through fluctuating yield have a negative impact on production and
distribution.

The socio economic impacts associated with above physical impact on

crops will be influenced by the interaction between producer and consumer
behaviours as well as possible adaptation that farmers could under take in
response to climate change. Agricultural and allied activities constitute the
single largest component of India’s economy. It is contributing 22% of total
gross domestic product in the year 2003 to 2004.

Forest climate is an important determinant of the geographical distribution,

composition and productivity of forest. Forest area could be affected by
climate depends on various factors like species and age of trees, possibilities
for forest to migrate and quality of forest management. Climate changeover
forest tree turn to have profound implications for traditional livelihood,
industry, bio-diversity, soil and water resources and these leads to
agricultural productivity.

Most of the estimates of the forestry sectors have been carried out without
considering the influence of land use changes in the future. Climate will
have the greatest impact on boreal forest. But temperature first will be
affected to a lesser extent and tropical forest will be least affected under
climate change condition. There were few studies have estimated economic
impacts and even the physical impacts are restricted to estimates the loss in
wood supply.

Their studies dealt with green house gas forcing and incorporating the
effects of sulphate aerosols. First scenario associated with increased
temperature and rainfall could result in increased productivity. Second
scenario involved in increased temperature under decreased precipitation
could have adverse effect on forest.

Human Health:
As the quality of life is strongly depends on climate, climate change would
affect human amenity. Though warm climate is generally preferred over
cooler climate, if the warming were beyond optimal temperature, it would
have adverse effects. The vulnerability of human health is depends on
functions of causative factors. But the causative factors depend on nutrition
status, population health and health infra structure.

These factors are relatively poor in the developing countries, so that health
impacts due to climate change in these countries are expected to be more
adverse. One of the major direct health impacts of climate change in these
countries could be an increase in heart related deaths and illness.

Studies have been shown that heart related deaths could increase because of
climate change, at the same time deaths due to cold weather condition
would decrease as a result of global warming. The indirect effect of climate
change would expand the area under the influence of the malaria mosquito,
these leads to increased global population exposed to Malaria by later half
of the next century.

However, actual increase in the number of people with Malaria estimated to

be between 50 to 80 million. Matsuoka and Kai have concluded that
population exposed to risk of malaria would increase by about 30% in the
Asian pacific region under 2 x CO2 climate.
Climate change brings Natural Disasters and Diseases :
 Climate change has settle, global temperatures projected to rise up to
4 degrees celcius by 2100. Tropical cyclones will likely become more
frequent and more intense, rainfall will increase and sea level may
rise up to nearly a meter as tropical sea surface temperature increase.

 Climate change is also expected to bring more natural disasters such

as draught and flooding. Such changes will inevitably affect heart,
particularly in the developing countries in the world, leading to more
deaths from heat stress, diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition.

 The incidence of mosquito borne diseases, in particular, is likely to

change.

 In summer tropical areas, both cyclones and floods create breeding

ground for mosquitoes that carry malaria and dengue. Poor
populations in coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise
and the associated treat of mosquito borne disease.

 India is likely to have the highest number of people living in poverty

by 2030 and among the greatest exposure to extreme weather and
natural disasters , but it is rare among developing nations facing
climate hazards because of its national government has the capacity to
manage disasters risk according to a report published this week.