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Where is the country of India located? India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. India has a very diverse climate due to its location and large differences in geography. India has no fewer than seven climate zones according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The west and northwest have areas with a desert climate (type BWh) or a steppe climate (type BSh). The steppe climate also occurs in parts of the south of the country. The mountain areas in the north and northeast of India have a temperate China climate (Cwb), changing into a high mountain climate (EH) in the highest areas of the Himalayas. The north and northeast (including the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, parts of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, parts of Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura) have a warm china climate, alternating with a tropical savanna climate (Aw ). Large parts of the south and east also have the tropical savanna climate. However, along the west coast there is a tropical monsoon climate (type Am), just like on the island groups of Laccadives (west India) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (east of mainland India). Because of the large differences in climate types and climate data, it is important to take a good look at what season you travel where when you travel to India. If you travel to eastern India from May to September, you are almost guaranteed to experience a lot of rain and a significant risk of flooding and other misery due to extreme precipitation. Cherrapunji in the state of Meghalaya is even the second wettest place on earth. Each year there is an average of 11,440 millimeters of precipitation, of which the months of June and July are by far the wettest with more than 2800 mm per month. That is almost a hundred millimeters of rain per day, even more than what falls per month in the Netherlands in the wettest months! The village of Mawsynram nine kilometers to the west is even wetter, with an average of 11. 872 millimeters per year, this is officially the wettest place on Earth. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Mawsynram had to process as much as 26,000 millimeters of rain in 1985, making it by far the largest amount of precipitation ever recorded in one place in one year. The extremely high rainfall, which also affects neighboring Bangladesh, has a combination of three causes. First of all, there is the warm, humid wind that is blowing the country in a northerly direction from the Bay of Bengal. Secondly, there is the location of the Khasi Mountains, which form a kind of wall that slows down the depressions from the Bay of Bengal and allows greater amounts of rain to fall. Heavy rainfall for days is no exception during the monsoon period in the summer months. The third reason is that during the monsoon a lift effect is created, in which the rain, as it were, pulls up the hills. The temperature differences against the mountain passes ensure that the condensation present in the air is easily converted into rain.

Four Seasons

India has four seasons globally. After a fairly short winter (January and February), the temperature rises rapidly from March, which means that the climatic summer starts early in the year. The afternoon temperatures in those months rise to about thirty (coastal areas) to more than forty degrees (inland). Depending on the region, the summer lasts approximately from March to May or June. The monsoon period begins in early June. It starts in the southeast and east every year around June 1 and then moves up in a north/northwest direction. Delhiis reached at the end of the month and the northwest has a short monsoon period, starting at the end of July/beginning of August. The monsoon period lasts until September (or locally October), after which a season comes with calm transitional weather towards the short winter. Winter starts in November in the north, in the rest of the country until December. During the winter months, snow falls in the Himalayas. Central India also experiences night frost in the coldest months. Due to the low temperatures and the virtually no wind, fog easily forms in the northern half of India during the winter season.

Summer

The summer months are hot and very humid. In the last two months before the monsoon, the relative humidity rises to high values. A humidity of 75 to 95 percent is quite normal in many places in India, so that the otherwise blue sky suddenly becomes very hazy or even cloudy, without any depressions entering the country. The chance of thunderstorms also increases sharply and especially along the coast there can be strong winds, which are the harbinger of the serious weather change to come. The only summer month that is still pleasant is March. After March it quickly becomes clammy and less stable. The heat becomes unpleasant inland from April, making travel quite difficult from this month.

Be well prepared for your trip to India

If you want to travel to India, prepare yourself well. For example, based on the climatic statistics, it is quite easy to determine which clothing and footwear are useful to take with you. Don’t forget to arrange your visa on time. You can apply for your visa for India in Dutch and then pay with iDeal. Also inquire in time about any vaccinations for India. It is best to ask for personal advice from a doctor or agency that specializes in this.

Climate figures

The figures below are based on long-term average climate statistics. The temperatures are displayed in degrees Celsius (°C).

Best time to visit India

Do you want to know when is the best time to travel to India? You can determine the best time to travel to a destination based on the weather and climate. In addition, there are other factors that are not directly related to the weather and that can influence the best travel periods for a travel destination. Think, for example, of holidays or festive periods, which makes traveling more interesting or not, because daily life comes to a standstill as a result. If you look at the climate of India, you can almost say that virtually all climates occur in this Asian country. In the southern half of India, tropical A climates predominate, with a large central area of ​​dry B climates. Northwest India is relatively dry with mainly warm desert and steppe climates (both B-climates). In the north and northeast, the more temperate C-climates predominate. In the mountains of the Himalayas, which can be found in the far north of India, you will see a colorful mix of B, C, D and E climates. The D and E climates are continental and high mountain climates.

Best months

Based on this information, you can imagine that it is extremely difficult to designate one travel period as the best time to travel to India. The temperature differences and variations in precipitation patterns ensure that there are always quite large variations in the weather in India. If we have to make a choice, we will do so mainly on the basis of precipitation amounts. Then the periods from November to March would be the best time to travel to India, with a few exceptions. If you want to plan a tour to India, you will have to look at the climate statistics for the desired route to see whether the complete route should be doable.

The monsoon period, when significant amounts of rain can fall, is the least suitable period for a trip to India. Almost the entire country has to deal with this rainy season, even the desert areas that the country has. The precipitation amounts there remain within limits. In Jodhpur, which is located in Rajasthan, there is about 100 to 150 millimeters per month in the wettest period (July and August). The wet period here lasts only 2.5 months. If you look at the quite popular province of Goa, you see a completely different picture. There the monsoon starts in May and lasts until October. The wettest month of July can count on about 1000 millimeters of rain in one month. With over 500 millimeters August is a lot drier, but according to our standards still soaking wet.

Beach holiday

The best time to travel to India for a beach holiday is from November to April. Most seaside resorts, and especially the beaches in Goa, are dry to fairly dry, have their sunniest period of the year and with afternoon temperatures of 30 to 33 degrees Celsius nice and warm. The sea temperature can be called very pleasant with an average of 28-29 degrees in winter. In the summer, the water along the coast of India is still a degree or two warmer.