Consider the following distribution of the climate diagram and identify the correct match:

Question

Consider the following distribution of the climate diagram and identify the correct match:

i. Tropical savannah

ii. Mediterranean climate

iii. Cold desert

iv. Hot desert climate

How many climates given above are correctly matched?

1. A. Only one climate
2. B. Only two climates (Correct answer)
3. C. Only three climates
4. D. All four climates

Correct Answer

Option B — Only two climates

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is Only two climates.

Key Points

• The question presents a map of climatic distributions and asks how many of the four labels sit on the right region. As marked, only two of the four are correctly placed.
• The four climate types being tested, and where each actually occurs:
  • Tropical savannah (Aw) — between the equatorial rainforest and the hot deserts, roughly 5°–20° either side of the equator. The African savannah belt, the *llanos* and *campos* of South America, and much of peninsular India. Distinct wet and dry seasons, tall grass with scattered trees.
  • Mediterranean (Cs) — the west coasts of continents between about 30° and 40°: the Mediterranean basin, central California, central Chile, the Cape region of South Africa, and south-west and southern Australia. Dry summers and wet winters — the only climate with a summer drought.
  • Cold desert (BWk) — mid-latitude interiors and rain-shadow basins: the Gobi, Turkestan, Patagonia, the Great Basin, and in India Ladakh and the Spiti valley. Aridity here is caused by continentality and rain shadow, not by subtropical subsidence.
  • Hot desert (BWh) — the subtropical belt near 20°–30°, on the western sides of continents under the descending limb of the Hadley cell: the Sahara, Arabian, Thar, Kalahari, Atacama and Australian deserts.

Additional Information

• The Koppen system classifies climate by temperature and precipitation thresholds tied to natural vegetation, using letter codes: A tropical, B dry, C warm temperate, D cold snow-forest, E polar, H highland. The second and third letters refine the seasonal rainfall regime and temperature.
• The distinction the map turns on is the position of the dry climates: hot deserts are subtropical and coastal-western, while cold deserts are continental interiors or rain shadows, often at high altitude and far from the sea. Swapping the two is the most common error in this kind of question.
• Mediterranean climate is unusual in that its rainfall maximum is in winter, brought by westerlies that shift equatorward in that season, while summers fall under the subtropical high. Its vegetation — evergreen shrubland, olive, cork oak, chaparral — is adapted to summer drought.
• India's own Koppen types include Amw (monsoon with a short dry season, along the Malabar coast), As (dry summer, Coromandel coast), Aw (tropical savannah, most of the peninsula), BWhw (hot desert, western Rajasthan), BShw (semi-arid steppe), Cwg (Ganga plain), Dfc (Arunachal) and E (Himalayan highland).

Exam Tip

• Anchor each climate to latitude plus position on the continent — equatorial belt, subtropical west coast, subtropical interior, mid-latitude interior. Map-matching questions are answered from that grid, not from memorised place names.