BharatNotes Built from the Climate chapter, whose figures come from IMD's press releases and its 1991-2020 station normals, the Meteorological Centre Jaipur's weekly and seasonal reports, PIB's long-range forecast releases, and the Government of Rajasthan's Economic Review 2025-26. Where a figure in circulation has the right number and the wrong year or the wrong scope, it appears here as a distractor, because that is exactly how it appears in a paper.
How to use this page
Every answer traces to the parent chapter, and no question invents a fact. The forecast figures are for the 2026 season; the station normals are 1991-2020; the records run to 29 August 2026. A climate figure without its period is half an answer, so each question or its key names the document and the year.
The distractors are the point. Most are real errors in circulation: a measurement year read as a publication year, a weekly departure read as a season total, an arid-zone share read as a state share, a forecast probability read as a forecast. Every answer carries a "why not the others" line, because in a paper with negative marking the skill being tested is elimination.
Work in this order: Sections A to C cold, since the mechanism and the gradient carry most of the marks; then Koppen, which is arithmetic and therefore reliable; then the records; then the 2026 season last, because it is the part most likely to move.
Read the tag on each question
| Tag | What it tests | If you keep missing these |
|---|---|---|
| Type A · measurement year vs release year | A figure dated to when it was published rather than when it was measured | Attach the measurement period to every number |
| Type B · part-period read as whole | A week's rainfall or a nine-month figure offered as a season | Ask what interval the number covers before using it |
| Type C · forecast vs outcome | A probability or a forecast presented as what happened | A forecast is a claim about the future, never a result |
| Type D · scope | A figure true of one zone, station or region applied to the state | Ask: a share of what? |
| Type E · superseded record | A record broken since the note was written | Records need the date they were set and the date they were checked |
| Recall / Concept | No trap — the fact, or the mechanism behind it | Ordinary revision |
Section A — Why Rajasthan is dry (Q1–6)
1. The single most economical explanation of why three-fifths of Rajasthan is dry is that — Concept
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(c). The Aravalli runs south-west to north-east, and the Arabian Sea branch of the monsoon travels south-west to north-east. A barrier lying along the direction of travel is not a barrier at all — the winds run beside the range rather than being forced up it, so there is little orographic lifting and little rain.
Why not the others: (b) is the popular half-answer and it is the weaker one — height matters far less than alignment here, and the same range gives heavy rain on its southern flank where the geometry differs; (a) is wrong on the state's own figures, since the southern edge lies only about 225 km from the Gulf of Kutch; (d) inverts the physics — desert heating produces low pressure that draws winds in.
2. NCERT's *India: Physical Environment* describes the Arabian Sea branch passing over west Rajasthan and along the Aravallis as causing — Recall
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(a) only a scanty rainfall. That is NCERT's own wording, and it is the phrase to carry because it is quotable in a Mains answer.
Why not the others: (d) overstates it — western Rajasthan receives scanty rain, not none; (b) describes what the Western Ghats do, not the Aravalli; (c) is a real effect on the range's southern section but is not what the text says of the branch as a whole.
3. The Economic Review 2025-26 divides Rajasthan into how many agro-climatic zones? Recall
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(d) Ten, delimited on climate, soil type, topography and cropping pattern together — the Review names soil in the definition, not as an afterthought.
Why not the others: (c) fifteen is India's national count, not Rajasthan's, and it is the commonest confusion on this question; (a) seven is the number of administrative divisions; (b) is not a figure any document gives.
4. The Economic Review pairs Rajasthan's share of India's landmass with its share of water resources as — Recall
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(a). The Review's own sentence is that Rajasthan holds over 10.41 per cent of India's landmass but merely 1.16 per cent of its water resources. That single contrast is the premise of the whole water and climate story.
Why not the others: (b) moves the decimal on the water share and destroys the point; (c) understates the land share, which is the largest of any state; (d) mixes the rounding used elsewhere with an invented water figure.
5. Which statement about the Aravalli's effect on Rajasthan is the one the state's Environment Department itself makes? Recall
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(b). The department states the 60:40 split, with the north-western 60 per cent arid and of limited productivity and the south-eastern 40 per cent more fertile and more varied. It is not a fact about a mountain; it is the state's water divide expressed as a proportion.
Why not the others: (a) and (c) are invented ratios; (d) contradicts every source on this page.
6. The distance from Rajasthan's southern edge to the Gulf of Kutch, as the Economic Review gives it, is about — Recall
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(c) about 225 km. It is short enough to matter: it is why the south-west receives moisture the far west does not, and it answers the question of why Rajasthan is arid despite lying near a sea.
Why not the others: (a) 400 km is the Review's distance to the Arabian Sea, a different measurement in the same sentence, and it is the intended trap; (b) and (d) are not figures any document gives.
Section B — The seasons and the local winds (Q7–12)
7. NCERT states that meteorologists recognise how many seasons in India? Recall
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(b) Four — the cold weather season, the hot weather season, the south-west monsoon season and the retreating monsoon season. That is NCERT's own enumeration.
Why not the others: (a) six is the traditional Indian ritu scheme, not the meteorological one, and it is the standard distractor; (c) and (d) are simplifications used in school texts abroad.
8. *Mawath* refers to — Concept
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(c) winter rainfall brought by western disturbances. This is RPSC's own key from RAS 2013 Prelims Q34, and the mechanism is the examinable part: extra-tropical systems travelling from the Mediterranean, not anything monsoonal.
Why not the others: (a) is the Loo; (b) are the May dust storms, a separate summer phenomenon; (d) is the retreating monsoon, which is a different season and a different mechanism. Mawath matters agriculturally because it supports the rabi gram crop.
9. The Loo is best described as — Recall
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(d) a hot, dry wind of the summer months, which NCERT's climate chapter describes along with the May dust storms and the October heat.
Why not the others: (b) describes the monsoon current itself; (c) is a winter cold wave, the opposite season; (a) is not a Rajasthan phenomenon — the state is landlocked.
10. October heat in northern India is caused by — Concept
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(d). The retreating monsoon leaves moisture in the air while temperatures remain high, and the combination is oppressive — the condition popularly called October heat.
Why not the others: (b) is wrong on the astronomy, since the sun is moving south in October; (a) brings winter rain, later and cooler; (c) the north-east monsoon affects the south-eastern coast, not Rajasthan.
11. Which season's rainfall does the chapter identify as the one that supports Rajasthan's rabi gram crop? Concept
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(a) winter rainfall, mawath. Gram is a rabi crop and mawath falls in the rabi season, which is why a failure of the western disturbances is a gram problem rather than a kharif problem.
Why not the others: (b) supports the kharif; (c) and (d) are too early and too erratic to carry a rabi crop.
12. The four seasons in NCERT's meteorological scheme, in order through the year, are — Recall
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(b). The cold weather season sets in by mid-November, the hot weather follows, then the south-west monsoon, then the retreating monsoon.
Why not the others: (a) and (c) scramble the order; (d) imports a four-season temperate scheme that NCERT does not use for India.
Section C — Rainfall: the gradient and the 50 cm line (Q13–19)
13. Rajasthan is the only state that NCERT splits by name across which rainfall boundary? Concept
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(d) the 50 cm line, which is the boundary between two of NCERT's four national rainfall classes. Rajasthan straddles it, which is why the state cannot be described by a single rainfall class.
Why not the others: (b) the 25 cm isohyet is a real line used to divide the western desert internally, but it is not the NCERT class boundary and the sub-regional scheme built on it is not sourced; (a) and (c) are class boundaries that fall outside Rajasthan's range entirely.
14. IMD reports Rajasthan's rainfall in how many meteorological subdivisions? Recall
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(a) two — East Rajasthan and West Rajasthan. That division is IMD's own reporting unit, and it is why the weekly and seasonal figures always come in three rows: the state, the east and the west.
Why not the others: (c) ten is the state's agro-climatic scheme, which IMD does not use for rainfall reporting; (b) confuses physiography with meteorological subdivisions; (d) ignores the split that carries the whole gradient story.
15. In the week of 20 to 26 August 2026, West Rajasthan's rainfall departure from normal was — Type B · part-period
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(b) −99% — 0.1 mm against a normal of 17.6 mm, on the Meteorological Centre Jaipur's weekly statistics.
Why not the others: (c) −57% is the state as a whole and (a) −38% is East Rajasthan, both from the same three-row table; (d) is invented. All three real figures are for one week and none is a season total — the chapter states plainly that no 2026 seasonal figure for Rajasthan has been published.
16. Of the ten West Rajasthan districts in that week's report, how many recorded nil rainfall? Recall
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(d) eight — Barmer, Bikaner, Churu, Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jodhpur and Sri Ganganagar, with Nagaur at 0.6 mm and Pali at 1.3 mm making up the ten.
Why not the others: (c) ten is the trap for a reader who saw "−99%" and assumed nothing fell anywhere; two districts did record rain. (a) and (b) are invented.
17. Which pair of eastern districts ran *against* the state trend in that same week? Recall
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(c) Bharatpur at +111% and Alwar at +94%, in a week when the state as a whole was 57 per cent below normal.
Why not the others: (b) Udaipur was at −99% and Dungarpur at −99% in that week; (d) Banswara −85% and Pratapgarh −66%; (a) Kota −44% and Jhalawar −46%. A state-level deficit conceals district-level surpluses, which is the point of the question.
18. The state's rainfall gradient, correctly stated, runs — Concept
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(b) west to east, increasing eastwards — and more precisely towards the south-east, which is why the Humid South-Eastern Plain is the wettest agro-climatic zone and the Arid Western Plain the driest.
Why not the others: (c) inverts it; (a) captures a real secondary component but not the principal axis; (d) is contradicted by every table in the chapter.
19. RPSC has twice asked the same rainfall gradient by naming three districts. Arranged from driest to wettest, they are — Concept
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(c) Jalore (west) < Jaipur (centre) < Kota (south-east). One rule answers both questions: rainfall increases west to east, so ordering the three districts by longitude orders them by rainfall.
Why not the others: each of the remaining options breaks the west-to-east sequence somewhere. The commission set this gradient in ascending form and in descending form eight years apart, and both are worked on the PYQ page.
Section D — Koppen, and the arithmetic behind it (Q20–27)
20. In the Koppen aridity test as the chapter applies it, the threshold value P is computed as — Concept
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(a) P = 2T + 28, where T is the annual mean temperature, for a station whose rain falls in the summer half — which is every Rajasthan station.
Why not the others: the remaining formulae are invented. The test that follows is what matters: desert (BW) below 5P, steppe (BS) between 5P and 10P, and not a B climate at all above 10P.
21. On the chapter's arithmetic from IMD's 1991-2020 normals, Jaisalmer classifies as — Recall
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(d) BWh. Annual mean 27.5 °C gives a desert threshold of 415 mm, and Jaisalmer's 236.9 mm falls well below it. The h is added because the annual mean exceeds 18 °C.
Why not the others: (a) BSh is the steppe class, which Jaisalmer's rainfall is far too low to reach; (b) and (c) are humid and sub-humid classes that occur nowhere among IMD's ten Rajasthan observatories.
22. Which of these IMD Rajasthan observatories computes as BSh rather than BWh? Recall
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(d) Churu, at 426.2 mm against a desert threshold of 404 mm — it clears the BW boundary by about 22 mm and is therefore steppe.
Why not the others: (b) Bikaner 285.9 mm, (c) Barmer 304.4 mm and (a) Sri Ganganagar 311.9 mm all fall below their desert thresholds and classify BWh. Churu is the driest of the BSh stations, which is why it is the useful boundary case.
23. Kota, the wettest of IMD's Rajasthan observatories, misses being a non-arid climate by about — Concept
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(b) about 13 mm. Its annual rainfall of 816.2 mm sits just under its own steppe threshold of 829 mm. The wettest IMD station in Rajasthan is, by Koppen's arithmetic, still semi-arid — which is the most economical statement of what kind of state this is.
Why not the others: the other margins are invented. The narrowness is the point: a different normal period or a different variant of the threshold formula could move Kota across the line.
24. How many of IMD's ten Rajasthan observatories classify as a B (dry) climate on the chapter's arithmetic? Concept
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(c) all ten. None reaches Aw or Cwg on these normals. Those wetter types exist in Rajasthan, but in districts where IMD does not staff an observatory — Banswara, Dungarpur, Jhalawar and Bharatpur.
Why not the others: the smaller counts assume some stations escape the B class, and none does. The absence of an observatory is not the absence of a climate, which is the reasoning the question rewards.
25. The "h" in BWh and BSh denotes — Recall
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(c). The h is a temperature qualifier — hot — added wherever the annual mean exceeds 18 °C, which every Rajasthan station does.
Why not the others: (b) inverts the meaning, since B is the dry group; (a) and (d) are not what the letter encodes.
26. The chapter labels its Koppen table "arithmetic, not a published classification" because — Concept
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(b). The inputs are IMD's, the thresholds are Koppen's, but the annual mean is a standard approximation computed from two published figures rather than a figure IMD states. The chapter says so, and adds that a different normal period or threshold variant moves stations near a boundary.
Why not the others: (a) and (d) are false — the normals are published measurements; (c) is false, the scheme is in ordinary use.
27. Which Koppen types does the chapter say exist in Rajasthan but at no IMD observatory? Concept
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(a). Those four districts are wetter than any station IMD staffs, so the classes exist on the ground while the observatory network cannot show them.
Why not the others: (b) are cold and tundra classes, impossible here; (c) would need an annual mean below 18 °C, which no Rajasthan station has; (d) are tropical wet classes requiring rainfall far beyond the state's maximum.
Section E — Records and extremes (Q28–35)
28. The highest temperature recorded in Rajasthan, and in India, is — Type E · superseded record
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(c) 51.0 °C at Phalodi on 19 May 2016, and it still stands as of 29 August 2026.
Why not the others: (a) Alwar's 50.6 °C of 1956 is the record Phalodi replaced and is a decade out of date wherever it is still printed as current; (b) Churu's 50.8 °C of 1 June 2019 is India's second-highest, 0.2 K below Phalodi; (d) Churu's 50.5 °C of 28 May 2024 was the highest Indian reading since 2016 and did not break the record.
29. When the Phalodi record was set in 2016, Phalodi lay in which district? Concept
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(a) Jodhpur. Phalodi became a district in its own right only in 2023, so every source written before then places the record in Jodhpur district, and RPSC may key either. A question naming Jodhpur for the 2016 record is not wrong so much as historical.
Why not the others: Phalodi has never been in Bikaner, Jaisalmer or Nagaur. Phalodi is one of the eight districts created in 2023 and retained in the December 2024 cull, so it exists on the current map.
30. The highest monsoon-season rainfall recorded over Rajasthan, across the full 1901-2025 record, is — Recall
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(d) 844.2 mm in 1917, on IMD Meteorological Centre Jaipur's own top-ten table in the Rajasthan Monsoon Report 2025.
Why not the others: (a) 2025's 715.9 mm is second, at 164% of the 435.6 mm long period average; (c) 1908 is third; (b) 2024 is fourth. All three are real entries in the same table, which is what makes them good distractors.
31. What does the chapter note about five of the ten wettest monsoons on record? Concept
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(c). 2011, 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2025 are five of the ten wettest since 1901, and 2024 and 2025 are consecutive. That is a fact about the present rather than a list of records, and it belongs in a Mains answer on climate variability.
Why not the others: (a) and (d) invert the clustering; (b) is what one would assume without checking the table.
32. The lowest dated station minimum among IMD's Rajasthan observatories is — Recall
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(d) −7.4 °C at Mount Abu on 12 December 1994, from IMD's Climatological Tables of Observatories in India 1991-2020, station 256.
Why not the others: the remaining figures are invented. Carry one caution with the real one: the extreme columns in those tables lag, so a colder reading in a later winter would not yet appear there.
33. On IMD's 1991-2020 normals, the coldest of the ten stations the Meteorological Centre Jaipur publishes, by January mean daily minimum, is — Recall
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(b) Mount Abu at 2.9 °C. It is the state's coldest station in ordinary winters as well as in its single record, which is the distinction the question draws.
Why not the others: (a) Churu at 5.6 °C is the coldest of the ten the Meteorological Centre publishes and is the usual answer people give — correct for that shorter list, wrong once Mount Abu is included. (c) and (d) are invented.
34. In the 2025 monsoon season, the district recording the highest total rainfall was — Recall
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(c) Baran, 1,593.5 mm, with Sawai Madhopur second at 1,333.1 mm, on the Rajasthan Monsoon Report 2025.
Why not the others: (b) is the runner-up and the strongest distractor; (a) and (d) are wet south-eastern and southern districts but not the maximum. Note that IMD reports Rajasthan on the thirty-three-district framework, not the current forty-one.
35. In the 2025 season, the largest departure above a district's own normal was recorded by — Concept
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(a) Hanumangarh at 227% of its own normal. The largest departure and the largest total are different questions — a dry district can post a huge percentage on a modest absolute figure.
Why not the others: (b) makes exactly that conflation, which is the trap; (c) Sirohi's 123% was the smallest departure in a season when twenty of the thirty-three districts recorded large excess and none recorded deficient or scanty rainfall; (d) is invented.
Section F — The monsoon's normals and the 2026 season (Q36–42)
36. IMD's second-stage forecast of 29 May 2026 put the season's all-India rainfall at — Type C · forecast vs outcome
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(c) 90% of LPA with a model error of ±4%. The LPA is 87 cm on 1971-2020 data, and the release put an 84% probability on below-normal or less rainfall for the country.
Why not the others: (a) 92% ±5% was the first-stage forecast of 13 April 2026, and it is the intended trap — the right number for the wrong release; (b) and (d) are invented. A forecast is not an outcome, and no 2026 seasonal figure for Rajasthan exists yet.
37. For North-West India, the homogeneous region Rajasthan belongs to, that forecast gave below-normal rainfall — Type C · forecast vs outcome
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(b) a 46% probability, against 33% for normal and 21% for above normal. That is a leaning, not a prediction, and it should be quoted with the probability attached.
Why not the others: (a) is how the forecast is usually reported and it overstates a 46% chance into a certainty; (c) 21% is the above-normal probability for the same region; (d) is false — IMD forecasts four homogeneous regions separately.
38. The driver IMD named for the weak 2026 forecast was — Recall
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(c). IMD stated that neutral ENSO conditions were transitioning towards El Niño over the equatorial Pacific and that El Niño was likely to develop during the season, with neutral Indian Ocean Dipole conditions expected to continue.
Why not the others: (a) misstates the IOD, which was forecast to stay neutral; (b) names the opposite phase, which strengthens the monsoon rather than weakening it; (d) is not a factor the release cites.
39. The south-west monsoon set in over Kerala in 2026 on — Recall
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(d) 4 June 2026, which IMD's own release records as three days after the normal date of 1 June.
Why not the others: (a) gives the normal date rather than the actual; (b) 8 July is the normal date for covering the entire country, a different milestone; (c) is invented.
40. The monsoon entered Rajasthan in 2026 on 2 July, with the Northern Limit passing through — Recall
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(d) Neemuch, Tonk, Bhiwani and Bhatinda, in IMD's release for that day — so the entry was through the south and south-east, as it always is.
Why not the others: (a) and (c) describe the western districts, which the monsoon reaches last; (b) names a plausible central line that IMD did not give. The Northern Limit is a line across several states, not a list of Rajasthan districts, which is why Bhiwani and Bhatinda appear on it.
41. The monsoon covered the entire country in 2026 on 9 July, which IMD recorded as — Recall
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(a). IMD's own words are that it covered the entire country "against the normal date of 08th July (1 day after the normal date of covering the entire India)."
Why not the others: the season arrived in Rajasthan about a week behind the station normals for the south-east but finished only a day behind the national coverage normal, having crossed the state in a week. (b), (c) and (d) contradict the release.
42. What does the chapter say about a 2026 seasonal rainfall total for Rajasthan? Type B · part-period
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(b). IMD's Rajasthan Monsoon Report is an annual document issued after September, and no 2026 edition existed as of 29 August 2026. The chapter says plainly: do not carry a 2026 season total from any source.
Why not the others: (a) 715.9 mm is the 2025 season; (c) 14.1 mm is one week's rainfall for the state, 20 to 26 August 2026; (d) asserts a document that does not yet exist.
Section G — Assertion, reason and matching (Q43–45)
43. Assertion (A): The Aravalli fails to give western Rajasthan orographic rainfall. Reason (R): The range is aligned along the direction in which the Arabian Sea branch of the monsoon travels. Concept
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(a). Both are true and the alignment is the explanation. A range lying along the path of the wind offers no slope for the air to climb, so there is no forced ascent, no adiabatic cooling and no orographic rain.
Why not the others: (b) would be right only if the two facts were unconnected, and they are precisely connected; (c) and (d) deny one of two statements that the chapter and NCERT both support.
44. Match the station with its Koppen class on the chapter's arithmetic.
(A) Jodhpur (B) Kota (C) Udaipur, Dabok (D) Barmer
(i) BSh (ii) BWh Concept
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(b) A-(ii), B-(i), C-(i), D-(ii). Jodhpur (370.2 mm) and Barmer (304.4 mm) are BWh; Kota (816.2 mm) and Udaipur's Dabok station (674.2 mm) are BSh.
Why not the others: each remaining option puts at least one wet eastern station in the desert class or one western station in the steppe class. The rule that resolves the whole set: the five driest stations are BWh and the five wettest are BSh, and the boundary falls between Jodhpur and Churu.
45. Match the record with its holder.
(A) Highest temperature (B) Lowest temperature (C) Highest monsoon rainfall (D) Highest 2025 district rainfall
(i) Baran (ii) Mount Abu (iii) 1917 (iv) Phalodi Recall
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(a). Phalodi 51.0 °C (2016); Mount Abu −7.4 °C (1994); 844.2 mm in 1917; Baran 1,593.5 mm in 2025.
Why not the others: (b) swaps the temperature extremes, which is the commonest error; (c) and (d) cross the rainfall entries. Note that three of these four are dated to a year and the fourth to a season — a record without its date is not usable.
More in This Series
- Rajasthan's Climate: Characteristics, Regions and the Monsoon — the parent chapter
- Every RAS Prelims Geography question, 2013–2024 — the five official climate questions with RPSC's keys
- Soils of Rajasthan
- Caution for Readers — the claims that are genuinely unsettled
