NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 2 India: weather warning for 19 May 2024 — LET'S EXPLORE (Fig. 2.13, the IMD warning map)

Book page 41 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

What do you observe happening on that day? What are the various weather conditions that the IMD is alerting people to?

Answer

The first thing to notice is that on 19 May 2024 no subdivision of India is coloured green. Every part of the country is under at least a ‘Watch’, and large areas are under ‘Alert’ or ‘Warning’. It is the height of the Indian summer, with the monsoon still to arrive — so the map shows two opposite kinds of trouble at the same time.

Colour of the subdivision	What it means	Roughly where it is on this map
Green	No Warning	Nowhere on this map
Yellow	Watch (Be Updated)	Most of central and peninsular India, the Himalayan states, most of the North-East
Orange	Alert (Be Prepared)	Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam–Meghalaya, Tripura, Kerala, parts of coastal Karnataka
Red	Warning (Take Action)	Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana–Delhi; and Tamil Nadu in the far south

The conditions the icons flag:

Heat wave (thermometer with a ‘+’) — right across the north-west and the plains.
Thunder & lightning (dark cloud with a bolt) — the most widespread icon of all, over the Himalayan states, central India, the eastern states, the North-East and the peninsula.
Heavy rain / very heavy rain (grey and dark rain clouds) — the North-East, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, coastal Karnataka, Lakshadweep and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Strong surface winds (wind sock) — over the Tamil Nadu–Kerala belt and interior Karnataka.
Hot and humid (thermometer in a yellow circle) — coastal pockets such as the Konkan coast, Gangetic West Bengal and the Andhra coast.

Why both heat and rain on one map: In mid-May north-west India bakes under dry, descending air while the south-west monsoon is already approaching Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Andamans from the sea. The country is literally split between a heat-wave half and a rain half — which is exactly what the next chapter, on climate, will explain.

Q2.

Which states have warning signs?

Answer

‘Warning (Take Action)’ is the red level — the most serious on this map. On 19 May 2024 the red subdivisions are:

Red (Warning — Take Action)	Reason shown by the icon
Rajasthan	Severe heat wave, with thunder and lightning as well
Punjab	Heat wave
Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi	Heat wave
Tamil Nadu	Very heavy rain with strong surface winds

If ‘warning signs’ is read more loosely as “any colour other than green”, then the answer is every state on the map — because none is green. The next level down, orange (Alert — Be Prepared), covers Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Meghalaya, Tripura, Kerala and part of coastal Karnataka.

Tip: Read the map in two layers. The colour of a subdivision tells you how serious the situation is; the icon printed on it tells you what the situation actually is. Both are needed to answer any question about this map.

Q3.

Which parts of India are likely to be free from severe weather?

Answer

Strictly speaking, none — there is no green ‘No Warning’ subdivision anywhere on this map.

The parts closest to normal weather are the yellow ‘Watch (Be Updated)’ areas, where people are only asked to keep track of the forecast and no action is required. These include much of the interior of the country — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana, interior Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand — along with Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the north, where the only icon is thunder and lightning.

Why even these are only ‘watch’ and not ‘no warning’: Mid-May is the peak of the pre-monsoon thunderstorm season. Afternoon heating over the heated land builds tall storm clouds almost everywhere, so short spells of thunder and lightning are expected over most of the country. A yellow subdivision is not a safe subdivision — it is one where the weather is being kept an eye on.

Tip: When you answer this in an examination, name the colour category first and then the areas. That shows you have read the legend, not just guessed from the map's shape.

Q4.

Which states are likely to face heat wave conditions?

Answer

Look for the icon of a red thermometer with a small ‘+’. On the 19 May 2024 map it appears over a broad belt running from the north-west across the northern plains to the east:

Red (Warning): Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana–Chandigarh–Delhi.
Orange (Alert): Gujarat including Saurashtra and Kutch, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar.
Yellow (Watch): Madhya Pradesh, and pockets further east and south towards Vidarbha, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal and the Odisha coast; heat-wave markers also appear over the Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand foothills and along the Konkan coast.

Why this belt and not the south: Heat waves need dry air, clear skies and no sea breeze. In May, hot dry air blows in over north-west India, there is no cloud to cut the sunshine, and the region lies far from any sea. The peninsula, by contrast, is narrow — the sea is never far away, and the sea breeze keeps its maximum temperatures lower.

Tip: Do not confuse the two thermometer icons. A thermometer with a ‘+’ means heat wave; a thermometer inside a yellow circle means hot and humid, which is a coastal condition, and a blue thermometer with a ‘–’ means a cold wave.

Q5.

What are the causes for warning in Tripura and Lakshadweep?

Answer

Place	Colour on the map	Icon shown	What people are being warned about
Tripura	Orange — Alert (Be Prepared)	Dark cloud with a lightning bolt	Thunderstorms with lightning
Lakshadweep	Islands too small to be shaded	Rain cloud, and a cloud with a lightning bolt	Heavy rain along with thunder and lightning

Tripura lies in the North-East, where warm, extremely moist air from the Bay of Bengal is pushed up against hills. That rising damp air builds tall thunderclouds, so pre-monsoon thunderstorms with lightning — and the squally winds that come with them — are common in May. Lightning is a serious hazard in this region for people working in open fields.

Lakshadweep is a group of small coral islands in the Arabian Sea, directly in the path of the advancing south-west monsoon, which reaches this part of the sea before it reaches the Indian mainland. Moist sea air and building cloud bring heavy rain and thunderstorms — dangerous for the islanders' fishing boats and small inter-island craft.

Why the two warnings look alike but come from different causes: Tripura's storms are built by moist air forced up over hills; Lakshadweep's come from moist air rising over a warm sea as the monsoon current advances. The instrument readings behind both would show the same thing — high humidity and falling pressure.

Was this helpful? Report an error