Koppen's classification of climate is based primarily on which two elements?
- A.Air pressure and wind direction
- B.Monthly mean temperature and precipitation
- C.Latitude and altitude
- D.Soil type and drainage
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, monthly mean temperature and precipitation. Koppen, who was a botanist as well as a climatologist, held that natural vegetation is the best single index of climate, and he fixed his boundaries using the monthly values of temperature and rainfall that vegetation belts seem to follow. Option A is wrong because pressure and winds are the basis of genetic classifications, which explain climate by its causes rather than by its measured values. Option C is wrong because latitude and altitude are controls of climate, not the measured elements on which the scheme is built, although they explain why the values differ. Option D is wrong because soil and drainage are results of climate rather than its measures, and Koppen made no use of them. Remember the label that papers attach to the scheme: it is an empirical classification.
Read the full article: Koppen Climatic Regions of India: Types, Letters and Areas
Practice Questions
View allIn Koppen's scheme, which climatic type is found on the west coast of India south of Goa?
- A.As
- B.Aw
- C.Amw
- D.Cwg
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The code stands for a monsoon climate with a short dry season: the Malabar coast is hot in every month, so the capital A applies, and it receives extremely heavy rain from the south-west monsoon, leaving only a brief dry spell.
Read the full explanation →The As type of climate, a monsoon climate with dry summer, is found in India only along the
- A.Coromandel coast of Tamil Nadu
- B.Konkan coast of Maharashtra
- C.Coast of Odisha
- D.Coast of Gujarat
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This coast lies in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats while the south-west monsoon blows, so its summer is comparatively dry, and it gets most of its rain between October and December from the retreating monsoon and the north-east monsoon, which is exactly what the small letter s records.
Read the full explanation →In Koppen's classification of Indian climates, the code BWhw, the hot desert type, is given to
- A.Eastern Rajasthan
- B.Extreme western Rajasthan
- C.Southern Punjab
- D.North-western Gujarat
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The capital B marks a dry climate, the capital W marks the arid or desert subdivision, h marks a hot climate and the last w marks a dry winter, so the whole code describes the heart of the Thar, the driest part of the country.
Read the full explanation →Which Indian state alone is given the Dfc code, a cold humid winter with a short summer?
- A.Sikkim
- B.Himachal Pradesh
- C.Arunachal Pradesh
- D.Meghalaya
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The capital D marks a cold snow forest climate in which the coldest month falls below minus three degrees Celsius, f marks the absence of a dry season and c marks a short summer with fewer than four months above ten degrees Celsius, and in the standard table for India…
Read the full explanation →In the Koppen code Cwg used for the Ganga plain, the small letter g denotes
- A.Glacial influence on the climate
- B.Gangetic type of temperature, the hottest month coming before the solstice
- C.Grassland vegetation
- D.Greater annual rainfall than evaporation
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Over most of the Ganga plain the temperature rises steadily through the spring and peaks in May, before the rains break, after which cloud and moisture bring the readings down, and Koppen gave this particular annual march of temperature its own letter.
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