Question

Give a reason for each of the following:
i)Kankyakumari experiences equitable climate
ii)Central Maharashtra gets less rainfall than coastal area of Maharashtra
iii)Jaipur has a higher annual range of temperature than Mumbai.

Answer 1

Hint:India is a huge country that has different climates in different regions. Factors such as latitude, altitude, distance from the sea, prevailing winds, topography and vegetation affect the climate of a space.

Complete answer:The options given to us all show how different factors affect the climate of a place.

i)Kanyakumari experiences equitable climate throughout the year as it is situated near the ocean. Equitable climate means difference in temperature between day-night and summer-winter is low.

Water heats up slowly and cools down slowly as compared to land. Therefore oceans remain cooler in summer and warmer in winters than land. This has a moderating effect on the climate of coastal areas like Kanyakumari.
Also the slow cooling down and warming of the ocean compared to land creates a difference in pressure and leads to winds to blow from land to sea and sea to land. This creates an equitable climate in coastal areas like Kanyakumari. Land breeze and sea breeze leads to humidity and moderate climate in these areas.

ii)Central Maharashtra gets less rainfall than coastal areas of Maharashtra as the south-west monsoon wind first hit the coastal areas. In the summer months as the inter tropical convergence zone moves parallel to the Himalayas, a low pressure area is created in North India and this attracts maritime tropical air mass from the southern hemisphere. This moist current is the south west monsoon and hits the coast of Kerala by 1st of June.
However most rainfall in the western ghats is orographic , which means that the moist air gets lifted due to the height of the ghat ,cools down and rainfall happens.
However central Maharashtra is in the leeward side (opposite side to that of the coming wind) of western ghats and hence does not receive as much rainfall as coastal Maharashtra.

iii)Jaipur has a higher annual range of temperature than Mumbai because Mumbai is near the ocean while Jaipur is in the interior of the continent. Since water heats up as well as cools down slowly, Mumbai’s doesn't experience extreme temperatures due to the moderating effect of the sea.
Whereas Jaipur, which is away from the sea and in the interiors of the continent, heats up quickly and then loses its heat quickly too. This leads to extreme temperature differences between day-night and summer-winter.
Since Jaipur has less humidity and sandy soil,it heats up quicker and loses all of its heat quickly.

Note:Areas like Rajasthan, Gujarat and central Maharashtra are drought prone as the Monsoon winds are left with very less moisture by the time it reaches these places.Another point to note is that though most of India receives rainfall in the southwest monsoon season, the eastern coast also receives rainfall in the northeast monsoon season. Northeast monsoon is called the winter monsoon.