Koppen’s Climate Classification Map

India’s climate is generally called as ‘Monsoon’ type. However, the climatic conditions vary from region to region because of various factors like Latitude, the Himalayan Mountains, Distribution of land and water, Distance from the Sea, Altitude, Relief, Surface pressure and winds, Jet stream and upper air circulation, and Western cyclonic disturbances and tropical cyclones.

To better understand the change in climate by classifying it based on different parameters, broadly three approaches are used:

1. Empirical Classification: It is based on observed data on temperature and precipitation.
2. Genetic Classifications: It tries to classify climates according to their causes.
3. Applied Classification: It classifies climate for a specific purpose.

One such type of empirical classification is Koeppen’s Climate Classifications.

Koeppen’s Climate Classifications

Koeppen’s Climate Classification is the most widely used in India. It was developed by V. Koeppen in 1918. He further refined and modified it and the final version of the classification came in 1936. He was a great German Climatologist and an amateur Botanist.

He studied in detail the relationship between the distribution of vegetation and climate before coming up with his classifications. After selecting some values of temperature and precipitation he tried to relate them to the distribution of vegetation and then used these values to classify climates.

According to these classifications, he divided the climate into five different groups and denoted them with capital letters- A, B, C, D, E, and H. These groups further have small sub-sections that are denoted with small letters. Here ‘f’ means no dry season, ‘m’ means monsoon climate, ‘w’ means winter dry season, and ‘s’ means summer dry season. The small letters a, b, c, and d denote the degree of severity of temperature.

Climatic Groups According to Koeppen

Group	Characteristics
A - Tropical	The average temperature of the coldest month is 18° C or higher
B - Dry Climates	Potential evaporation exceeds precipitation
C - Warm Temperature	The average temperature of the coldest month of the (Mid-latitude) climates years is higher than minus 3°C but below 18°C
D - Cold Snow Forest Climates	The average temperature of the coldest month is minus 3° C or below
E - Cold Climates	Cold Climates Average temperature for all months is below 10° C
H - Highlands	Cold due to elevation

Climatic Types According to Koeppen

Group	Type	Letter Code	Characteristics
A - Tropical Humid Climate	Tropical Wet	Af	No dry season
	Tropical Monsoon	Am	Monsoonal, Short dry season
	Tropical wet and dry	Aw	Winter dry season
B - Dry Climate	Subtropical Steppe	BSh	Low-latitude semi-arid or dry
	Subtropical Desert	BWh	Low-latitude arid
	Mid-latitude Steppe	BSk	Mid-latitude semi-arid or dry
	Mid-latitude Desert	BWk	Mid-latitude arid or dry
C - Warm temperate Climates	Humid subtropical	Cfa	No dry season
	Mediterranean	Cs	Dry hot summer
	Marine west coast	Cfb	No dry season, warm and cool summer
D - Cold Snow-forest Climates	Humid Continental Subarctic	Df	No dry season, severe winter
		Dw	Winter dry and very severe
E - Cold climates	Tundra	ET	No true summer
	Polar ice cap	EF	Perennial ice
H - Highland	Highland	H	Highland with snow cover

Criticism of Koeppen’s Climate Classifications

The classifications given by Koeppen were widely accepted but it is also criticized on several factors. It is being said that is based only on the averages while extreme conditions like periodic drought or an unusual cold spell also affect the vegetation distribution of an area. The concept of this classification is very vast which might become a problem in memorizing it.

Another reason for which it is criticized is that it does not take all the factors consideration that affects the climate. The intensity of the precipitation, number of rainy days, cloud coverage, and variations in temperature or precipitation are some of the factors that were ignored by Koeppen while defining his classifications.

Last Updated on: August 25, 2022