Climate, Monsoon & Cyclones: previous-year questions

Answer: (C) Eastern part of Peninsular India

From October to December the south-west monsoon withdraws from North India. The retreating winds, now blowing from the north-east, pick up moisture over the Bay of Bengal and bring rain to the eastern side of the Peninsula: the Tamil Nadu (Coromandel) coast, southern Andhra Pradesh and the adjoining interior. Tamil Nadu receives about half of its annual rainfall in this season, which is also the season of Bay of Bengal cyclones. North-west India (A) gets its winter rain from western disturbances; the North-East (B) receives its heavy rain from the Bay of Bengal branch of the advancing monsoon; and the western coast (D) is drenched by the Arabian Sea branch from June to September. West Bengal's pre-monsoon thunderstorms are the Kalbaisakhi (Nor'westers).

No option is correct as printed — this question is disputed. WBPSC awarded the mark to all candidates (final answer key No. 1104-PSC/CON(Q), 27.08.2026): the correct combination, statements (I) and (II), is not among the options.

Statement I is acceptable: a cyclone is a system of winds converging on a low-pressure centre, so it is driven by a difference in air pressure. Statement II is correct: tropical cyclones form over seas warmer than about $27^\circ$C, mostly between $5^\circ$ and $20^\circ$ latitude. Statement III is wrong: the eye is a calm, largely cloud-free area of sinking air with the lowest pressure and a relatively high temperature, while the densest clouds, strongest winds and heaviest rain are in the surrounding eyewall. The correct combination, (I) and (II), is not among the options, so PSC's final key marks this question '*' and gives 1 mark to all candidates. Extras: cyclones rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern, do not form within about $5^\circ$ of the Equator, and are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the north-west Pacific; the Bay of Bengal produces more cyclones than the Arabian Sea.

Answer: (C) 9

Using Köppen's scheme based on temperature and rainfall, India is divided into nine climatic regions, from Amw on the Konkan coast to E in the high Himalaya. Six, seven and ten do not match this classification.

Answer: (C) Cloud bursts

Ladakh is a cold desert in the rain shadow of the Himalaya with less than 10 cm of rain a year, so its mud-built houses and loose slopes cannot withstand sudden downpours. A cloudburst, defined by the IMD as rainfall of over 10 cm in an hour over a small area, triggers flash floods and mudflows; the Leh cloudburst of 5–6 August 2010 killed over 200 people. Frontal rain belongs to temperate cyclones, convectional rain to hot equatorial regions, and hailstorms damage crops rather than cause mass deaths.

Answer: (B) Western Disturbance

Western Disturbances are low-pressure systems that originate over the Mediterranean region and are carried east by the westerly jet stream, bringing winter rain to Punjab, Haryana and Delhi and snow to the western Himalaya; this rain helps the rabi crop, especially wheat. Nor'westers (Kalbaishakhi) are violent pre-monsoon thunderstorms of West Bengal, Odisha and Assam in April–May. Low-pressure systems in the Arabian Sea mainly bring cyclones to the west coast. Cold waves bring falling temperatures, not rain.

Answer: (D) Kanyakumari

In January the sun is overhead in the southern hemisphere, near the Tropic of Capricorn, so the place nearest the equator gets the most direct rays and the longest day; Kanyakumari (about 8°N) is the southernmost of these places. Chennai (about 13°N) is the tempting option but lies further north. Delhi and Amritsar, far to the north, get slanting rays and short days in winter. Insolation is the incoming solar radiation received at the earth's surface.

Answer: (B) Mango Shower – Odissa

Mango showers are pre-monsoon showers of Kerala and coastal Karnataka that help the mango crop ripen, so pairing them with Odisha is incorrect. Similar showers in Karnataka that help coffee are called blossom (cherry) showers. The loo is the hot, dry wind of the north-western plains such as Punjab, and andhis are the dust storms of north India, including Uttar Pradesh. Nor'westers (Kalbaishakhi) are violent evening thunderstorms of West Bengal and Assam.

Answer: (B) Oman

'Yaas' was named by Oman; the word is of Persian origin and refers to the jasmine flower. Cyclone Yaas, a very severe cyclonic storm, made landfall near Balasore on the Odisha coast on 26 May 2021 and flooded coastal West Bengal (Digha, the Sundarbans). North Indian Ocean cyclones are named from a list contributed by the 13 member countries of the WMO/ESCAP panel, used in rotation - e.g., Amphan (Thailand), Nisarga (Bangladesh), Tauktae (Myanmar), Gulab (Pakistan), Asani (Sri Lanka), Tej (India).

Answer: (C) Jodhpur

Rainfall variability is inversely related to the amount of rainfall: the lower the average rainfall, the more it fluctuates from year to year. Jodhpur, in the arid Thar region of western Rajasthan, gets scanty monsoon rain (roughly 35-40 cm a year) with a coefficient of variability above 50%, whereas Kolkata, Ranchi and Lucknow lie in regions of assured monsoon rain with variability of roughly 15-25%. Hence drought-prone areas are precisely the low-rainfall, high-variability areas - western Rajasthan, Kutch and the rain-shadow belt of the Deccan.

Answer: (C) Andhra coast

Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Hudhud made landfall near Visakhapatnam on the Andhra Pradesh coast on 12 October 2014 with winds of about 180-185 km/h, devastating the city and also affecting southern Odisha. The name was contributed by Oman and refers to the hoopoe bird. Other cyclones to link with coasts: Phailin (2013) and Fani (2019) - Odisha; Vardah (2016) - Chennai; Ockhi (2017) - Kerala and Tamil Nadu; Aila (2009), Bulbul (2019) and Amphan (2020) - West Bengal.

Answer: (D) All are correctly matched

These are the standard approximate dates of the solstices and equinoxes as observed in the Northern Hemisphere.

Answer: (C) 10-15 June

The southwest monsoon typically reaches South Bengal around 10-15 June, a few days after its onset over Kerala in early June.

Answer: (A) Meghalaya

Meghalaya, home to some of the world's wettest places (Mawsynram, Cherrapunji), experiences an extreme contrast between very heavy monsoon rainfall and a comparatively dry winter, giving it the largest annual rainfall variation among these states.

Answer: (A) a region between troposphere and stratosphere.

The tropopause is the boundary layer (transition zone) between the troposphere (lowest atmospheric layer, where weather occurs) and the stratosphere. It is characterised by a temperature inversion — temperature stops decreasing with altitude and begins to increase.

Answer: (A) Tropical monsoon

West Bengal experiences a tropical monsoon climate (also classified as Aw/Am in Köppen system). It has a pronounced monsoon season (June–September), a dry winter, and a hot summer. The climate supports rice cultivation and deciduous/tropical forests.

Answer: (B) Bay of Bengal branch of Indian Monsoon

West Bengal receives most of its annual rainfall from the Bay of Bengal branch of the South-West Monsoon. This branch enters through the northeast and brings heavy rain to North Bengal (Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar receive over 250 cm annually). The state's rainfall is predominantly during the June–September monsoon season.