In this article, we will discuss The Hot Weather Season in India. So, let’s get started.
The Hot Weather Season in India
The north Indian region experiences a well defined hot weather season from mid-March to mid-June. With the northward march of the sun towards the Tropic of Cancer after the vernal Equinox, the temperature begins to rise. Thermal heating over north-western India gradually establishes a thermal “low’ at the surface but, while the jet stream remains south of the Himalayas, it maintains its dynamic anticyclone aloft over Afghanistan and the borderland of Pakistan. This “lid” of subsiding warming dry air prevents the surface thermal “low” from having sufficient effect as a lifting agent to carry air aloft and so to bring about precipitation.
At the advent of March, the temperature starts rising abruptly. By April, the Peninsular regions
south of the Vindhyan Range heat up with mean maximum temperature of 40℃. In May, the mean maximum temperature reaches 42°C in Rajasthan, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, south Punjab, Jammu and Haryana.
Temperature exreeding 54℃ was recorded at Sri Ganganagar in 1967. At some places, particularly in north-western India, day temperature may be as high as 45℃ or 47℃. The mean minimum daily temperature in May also remains quite high being about 26°C at Delhi and Jaipur. The temperature in the eastern states of India and in the hilly regions in the month of May is generally cool and invigorating the minimum average in Shillong being 15°C and 17°C in Kohima.
In the month of April the 30°C isotherm of average temperature encloses a vast area of the
country between 10°N and 26°N latitudes (except the west coast and the hilly states of north-east India). The diurnal range of temperature ranges between 5℃ and 6℃ in coastal areas, but reaches 15°-20°C in the interior parts of the country and in the north-west Satluj Ganga Plains.
Being a transitional season between the north-east and the south-west monsoon (rainy season), it is characterised by unstable air pressure and wind circulation. With the northward movement of the sun, the low pressure area also moves from south-east to north-west. It finally settles over north-western India in the end of May or early part of June. the pressure generally increases towards south in the neighbouring sea. The general direction of winds is from north-west and west in north-western India; from south-west in the Arabian Sea and the adjoining coasts. The tornado-like dust storms of Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, the hot winds (Loo) in western India, the Norwesters (Kalbaisakhis) of West Bengal are the characteristics of summer season.
During summer season, the sun is scorching and the relative humidity is generally below
30%, occasionally reaching below 10%. The total rainfall of the season is below 2 cm in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh; between 5 and 15 cm in the sub-montane region of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha; and between 15 and 25 cm in the Malabar coast and over 50 cm in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland. The rains caused by thunderstorms in Karnataka are called as “Cherry Blossoms” (where these are beneficial for coffee plantation) and elsewhere in south India as “mango showers”.
