The climate of India comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a vast geographic scale and varied topography, making generalisations difficult. Based on the Köppen system, India hosts six major climatic subtypes, ranging from arid desert in the west, alpine tundra and glaciers in the north, and humid tropical regions supporting rainforests in the southwest and the island territories. Many regions have starkly different microclimates. The nation has four seasons: winter (January and February), summer (March to May), a monsoon (rainy) season (June–September), and a post-monsoon period (October–December). India's unique geography and geology strongly influence its climate; this is particularly true of the Himalayas in the north and the Thar Desert in the northwest. The Himalayas act as a barrier to the frigid katabatic winds flowing down from Central Asia. Thus, North India is kept warm or only mildly cooled during winter; in summer, the same phenomenon makes India relatively hot. Although the Tropic of Cancer—the boundary between the tropics and subtropics—passes through the middle of India, the whole country is considered to be tropical. As in much of the tropics, monsoonal and other weather conditions in India are unstable: major droughts, floods, cyclones and other natural disasters are sporadic, but have killed or displaced millions.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_India

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1789: French Revolution: Parisians stormed the Bastille, freeing its inmates and taking the prison's large quantities of arms and ammunition. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/storming_of_the_Bastille)

1798: The Sedition Act became United States law, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts)

1933: Gleichschaltung: All political parties in Germany were outlawed, except the National Socialist German Workers Party. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung)

1958: King Faisal II, the last king of Iraq, was overthrown by a military coup d'état led by Abd al-Karim Qasim. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_II_of_Iraq)

1965: The NASA spacecraft Mariner 4 flew past Mars, collecting the first close-up pictures of another planet. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_4)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

ratify: To give formal consent to; make officially valid. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ratify)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

Nobody living can ever stop meAs I go walking my freedom highwayNobody living can make me turn backThis land is made for you and me. -- Woody Guthrie (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie)