Koeppen seasonality letters
Topic: World Climate Classification: Koeppen's Scheme · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 11 "World Climate and Climate Change"
Meaning
In Koeppen's scheme, the second letter of a climate code usually tells you when the dry season comes. f means no dry season, because rain falls in every month. m means monsoon: heavy summer rain and a short dry season. w means a dry winter, and s means a dry summer. In the dry group B, the second letter is a capital: S for steppe (semi-arid) and W for desert (arid).
Example
The Coromandel coast of Tamil Nadu is marked As. Its summer is dry and most of its rain comes in winter. The west coast south of Goa is Amw, a monsoon climate with a short dry season.
Don't confuse with
- Koeppen temperature letters: the third letters (a, b, c, d, and h and k in group B) show how hot or cold a place is, not when it is dry. m is a moisture letter, not a temperature letter.
Related concepts
- Empirical classification
- Genetic classification
- Koeppen climate classification
- Koeppen temperature letters
- Thornthwaite classification