Dry Tamil Nadu coast in the southwest monsoon

Geography glossary

Topic: Climate of India and the Monsoon · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 4 "Climate"

Meaning

The Tamil Nadu coast gets little rain from June to September, even though the rest of India is wet. There are two reasons:

  • The coast runs parallel to the Bay of Bengal branch, so these winds blow along the shore, not onto it.
  • It lies in the rain shadow of the Arabian Sea branch. A rain shadow is a dry zone behind a mountain. The Western Ghats take the rain first, and the air is dry by the time it reaches the east.

The coast gets most of its rain later, in October-December, from the northeast monsoon and cyclones. So the statement "Tamil Nadu gets most rain from the southwest monsoon" is false.

Example

Chennai, on the Coromandel coast, stays fairly dry in July. Its wettest months are October and November.

Don't confuse with

  • Rain shadow area of the Deccan: Pune and Bengaluru are dry only because they lie behind the Western Ghats. The Tamil Nadu coast is also dry because the Bay winds run parallel to it.

Related concepts

Read more