The whole of India has a monsoon type of climate. But the combination of elements of the weather, however, reveal many regional variations. These variations represent the subtypes of the monsoon climate. It is on this basis that the climatic regions can be identified. A climatic region has a homogeneous climatic condition which is the result of a combination of factors. Temperature and rainfall are twoimportant elements which are considered to be decisive in all the schemes of climatic classification. The classification of climate, however, is a complex exercise. There are different schemes of classification of climate.
Major climatic types of India based on Koeppen’s scheme have been described below:
Koeppen based his scheme of Climatic classification on monthly values of temperature and precipitation. He identified five major climatic types, namely:
- Tropical climates, where mean monthly temperature throughout the year is over 18°C.
- Dry climates, where precipitation is very low in comparison to temperature, and hence, dry. If dryness is less, it is semiarid (S); if it is more, the climate is arid (W).
- Warm temperate climates, where mean temperature of the coldest month is between 18°C and minus 3°C.
- Cool temperate climates, where mean temperature of the warmest month is over 10°C, and mean temperature of the coldest month is under minus 3°C.
- Ice climates, where mean temperature of the warmest month is less than 10°C.
Climatic Regions of India According to Koeppen’s Scheme
| Type of Climate | Areas |
| Amw Monsoon with short dry season | West coast of India south of Goa |
| As – Monsoon with dry summer | Coromandel coast of Tamil Nadu |
| Aw – Tripical savannah | Most of the Peninsular plateaus, south of the Tropic of Cancer |
| Bwhw – Semi-arid steppe climate | North-western Gujarat, some parts of western Rajasthan and Punjab. |
| Bwhw – Hot desert | Extreme western Rajasthan |
| Cwg – Monsoon with dry winter | Ganga plain, eastern Rajasthan, northern Madhya Pradesh, most of North-east India |
| Dfc – Cold humid winter with short summer | Arunachal Pradesh |
| E – Polar type | Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand |