CLIMATE
~Types of Climate.~--The climate of the Panjáb plains is determined by
their distance from the sea and the existence of formidable mountain
barriers to the north and west. The factor of elevation makes the
climate of the Himalayan tracts very different from that of the plains.
Still more striking is the contrast between the Indian Himalayan climate
and the Central Asian Trans-Himalayan climate of Spití, Lahul, and
Ladákh.
~Zones.~--A broad division into six zones may be recognised:
A 1. Trans-Himalayan.
B 2. Himalayan.
C. Plains 3. North Western.
4. Submontane.
5. Central and South Eastern.
6. South Western.
~Trans-Himalayan Climate.~--Spití, Lahul, and Ladákh are outside the
meteorological influences which affect the rest of the Indian Empire.
The lofty ranges of the Himálaya interpose an almost insurmountable
barrier between them and the clouds of the monsoon. The rainfall is
extraordinarily small, and, considering the elevation of the inhabited
parts, 10,000 to 14,000 feet, the snowfall there is not heavy. The air
is intensely dry and clear, and the daily and seasonal range of
temperature is extreme. Leh, the capital of Ladákh (11,500 feet), has an
average rainfall (including snow) of about 3 inches. The mean
temperature is 43° Fahr., varying from 19° in January to 64° in July.
But these figures give no idea of the rigours of the severe but healthy
climate. The daily range is from 25 to 30 degrees, or double what we are
accustomed to in England. Once 17° below zero was recorded. In the rare
dry clear atmosphere the power of the solar rays is extraordinary.
"Rocks exposed to the sun may be too hot to lay the hand upon at the
same time that it is freezing in the shade."
[Illustration: Fig. 17. Average Barometric and Wind Chart for January.]
[Illustration: Fig. 18. Average Barometric and Wind Chart for July.]
~The Indian Zones--Meteorological factors.~--The distribution of pressure
in India, determined mainly by changes of temperature, and itself
determining the direction of the winds and the character of the weather,
is shown graphically in figures 17 and 18. The winter or north-east
monsoon does not penetrate into the Panjáb, where light westernly and
northernly winds prevail during the cold season. What rain is received
is due to land storms originating beyond the western frontier. The
branch of the summer or south-west monsoon which chiefly affects the
Panjáb is that which blows up the Bay of Bengal. The rain-clouds
striking the Eastern Himálaya are deflected to the west and forced up
the Gangetic plain by south-westernly winds. The lower ranges of the
Panjáb Himálaya receive in this way very heavy downpours. The rain
extends into the plains, but exhausts itself and dies away pretty
rapidly to the south and west. The Bombay branch of the monsoon mostly
spends itself on the Gháts and in the Deccan. But a part of it
penetrates from time to time to the south-east Panjáb, and, if it is
sucked into the Bay current, the result is widespread rain.
~Himalayan Zone.~--The impressions which English people get of the climate
of the Himálaya, or in Indian phrase "the Hills," are derived mainly
from stations like Simla and Murree perched at a height of from 6500 to
7500 feet on the outer ranges. The data of meteorologists are mainly
taken from the same localities. Places between 8000 and 10,000 feet in
height and further from the plains enjoy a finer climate, being both
cooler and drier in summer. But they are less accessible, and weakly
persons would find the greater rarity of the air trying.
In the first fortnight of April the plains become disagreeably warm, and
it is well to take European children to the Hills. The Panjáb Government
moves to Simla in the first fortnight of May. By that time Simla is
pretty warm in the middle of the day, but the nights are pleasant. The
mean temperature of the 24 hours in May and June is 65° or 66°, the mean
maximum and minimum being 78° and 59°. Thunderstorms with or without
hail are not uncommon in April, May, and June. In a normal year the
monsoon clouds drift up in the end of June, and the next three months
are "the Rains." Usually it does not rain either all day or every day;
but sometimes for weeks together Simla is smothered in a blanket of grey
mist. Normally the rain comes in bursts with longer or shorter breaks
between. About the third week of September the rains often cease quite
suddenly, the end being usually proclaimed by a thunderstorm. Next
morning one wakes to a new heaven and a new earth, a perfectly cloudless
sky, and clean, crisp, cool air. This ideal weather lasts for the next
three months. Even in December the days are made pleasant by bright
sunshine, and the range of temperature is much less than in the plains.
In the end of December or beginning of January the night thermometer
often falls lower at Ambála and Ráwalpindí than at Simla and Murree.
After Christmas the weather becomes broken, and in January and February
falls of snow occur. It is a disagreeable time, and English residents
are glad to descend to the plains. In March also the weather is often
unsettled. The really heavy falls of snow occur at levels much higher
than Simla. These remarks apply _mutatis mutandis_ to Dharmsála,
Dalhousie, and Murree. Owing to its position right under a lofty
mountain wall Dharmsála is a far wetter place than Simla. Murree gets
its monsoon later, and the summer rainfall is a good deal lighter. In
winter it has more snow, being nearer the source of origin of the
storms. Himalayan valleys at an elevation of 5000 feet, such as the Vale
of Kashmír, have a pleasant climate. The mean temperature of Srínagar
(5255 feet) varies from 33° in January to 75° in July, when it is
unpleasantly hot, and Europeans often move to Gulmarg. Kashmír has a
heavy snowfall even in the Jhelam valley. Below 4000 feet, especially in
confined river valleys the Himalayan climate is often disagreeably hot
and stuffy.
~Climate of the Plains.~--The course of the seasons is the same in the
plains. The jaded resident finds relief when the rains cease in the end
of September. The days are still warm, but the skies are clear, the air
dry, and the nights cool. November is rainless and in every way a
pleasant month. The clouds begin to gather before Christmas, but rain
often holds off till January. Pleasant though the early months of the
cold weather are, they lay traps for the unwary. In October and November
the daily range of temperature is very large, exceeding 30°, and the
fall at sunset very sudden. Care is needed to avoid a chill and the
fever that follows. Clear and dry though the air is, the blue of the
skies is pale owing to a light dust haze in the upper atmosphere. For
the same reason the Himalayan snows except after rain are veiled from
dwellers in the plains at a distance of 30 miles from the foot-hills.
The air in these months before the winter rains is wonderfully still. In
the three months after Christmas the Panjáb is the pathway of a series
of small storms from the west, preceded by close weather and occurring
usually at intervals of a few weeks. After a day or two of wet weather
the sky clears, and the storm is followed by a great drop in the
temperature. The traveller who shivers after a January rain-storm finds
it hard to believe that the Panjáb plain is a part of the hottest region
of the Old World which stretches from the Sahára to Delhi. If he had to
spend the period from May to July there he would have small doubts on
the subject. The heat begins to be unpleasant in April, when hot
westernly winds prevail. An occasional thunderstorm with hail relieves
the strain for a little. The warmest period of the year is May and June.
But the intense dry heat is healthier and to many less trying than the
mugginess of the rainy season. The dust-storms which used to be common
have become rarer and lighter with the spread of canal irrigation in the
western Panjáb. The rains ought to break at Delhi in the end of June and
at Lahore ten days or a fortnight later. There is often a long break
when the climate is particularly trying. The nights are terribly hot.
The outer air is then less stifling than that of the house, and there is
the chance of a little comparative coolness shortly before dawn. Many
therefore prefer to sleep on the roof or in the verandah. September,
when the rains slacken, is a muggy, unpleasant, and unhealthy month. But
in the latter half of it cooler nights give promise of a better time.
~Special features of Plain Zones.~--The submontane zone has the most
equable and the pleasantest climate in the plains. It has a rainfall of
from 30 to 40 inches, five-sevenths or more of which belongs to the
monsoon period (June-September). The north-western area has a longer and
colder winter and spring. In the end of December and in January the keen
dry cold is distinctly trying. The figures in Statement I, for
Ráwalpindí and Pesháwar, are not very characteristic of the zone as a
whole. The average of the rainfall figures, 13 inches for Pesháwar and
32 for Ráwalpindí, would give a truer result. The monsoon rains come
later and are much less abundant than in the submontane zone. Their
influence is very feeble in the western and south-western part of the
area. On the other hand the winter rains, are heavier than in any other
part of the province. Delhi and Lahore represent the extreme conditions
of the central and south-eastern plains. The latter is really on the
edge of the dry south-western area. The eastern districts of the zone
have a shorter and less severe cold weather than the western, an earlier
and heavier monsoon, but scantier winter rains. The total rainfall
varies from 16 to 30 inches. The south-western zone, with a rainfall of
from 5 to 15 inches, is the driest part of India proper except northern
Sindh and western Rájputána. Neither monsoon current affects it much. At
Multán there are only about fifteen days in the whole year on which any
rain falls.