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Chapter Overview Map
Climate of Telangana
3.1–3.3 Setting, seasons and temperature
- Telangana is an interior plateau State with a tropical monsoon climate: hot summers, a rainy southwest monsoon and a mild, dry winter.
- The India Meteorological Department (IMD) divides the year into four seasons.
- May is the hottest month; the northern Godavari valley records the most heat-wave days.
3.4 Rainfall distribution
- The State's normal annual rainfall is about 950 mm, but district normals range from about 610 mm to 1,326 mm.
- Rainfall decreases from the north and north-east towards the south and south-west.
3.5–3.6 Rain-bearing systems
- The southwest monsoon (June–September) brings about four-fifths of the annual rainfall.
- October–December rain is a smaller share, and it is relatively larger in the south-east.
3.7–3.8 Variability and extremes
- Monthly rainfall varies far more from year to year than the seasonal total.
- Low and unreliable rainfall, high heat and high evaporation make the south and south-west most drought-prone.
3.9 Climate links
- Rainfall and temperature control soil moisture, groundwater recharge, river flow and cropping.
- The wetter north feeds the Godavari system; the drier south lies mostly in the Krishna basin.
Don't confuse
- Amount of rainfall, its distribution through the season and its reliability across years are three different things.
- A record temperature is an extreme, not the normal climate of a place.
Notice how each branch leads to the next: the setting explains the rainfall, rainfall explains variability and drought, and all of them shape water and farming. The confusion branch holds two traps that run through the chapter.