Climatic Classification By Koeppen
Koeppen based his scheme of Climatic classification on monthly values of temperature and precipitation.
He identified five major climatic types, namely:
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Tropical climates, where the mean monthly temperature throughout the year is over 18°C.
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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).
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Warm temperate climates, where the mean temperature of the coldest month is between 18°C and minus 3°C.
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Cool temperate climates, where the mean temperature of the warmest month is over 10°C, and mean temperature of the coldest month is under minus 3°C.
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Ice climates, where the mean temperature of the warmest month is under 10°C.
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Koeppen used letter symbols to denote climatic types as given above. Each type is further sub-divided into sub-types on the basis of seasonal variations in the distributional pattern of rainfall and temperature. He used S for semi-arid and W for arid and the following small letters to define subtypes: f (sufficient precipitation), m (rain forest despite a dry monsoon season), w (dry season in winter), h (dry and hot), c (less than four months with a mean temperature over 10°C), and g (Gangetic plain). Accordingly, India can be divided into eight climatic regions.
