SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 1 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 5 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

In which part of India does the hot wind ‘Loo’ blow?

(a)South and Southwestern
(b)East and Northeastern
(c)West and Southwestern
(d)North and Northwestern

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The Loo is the hot, dry afternoon wind of May and June over the plains of north and north-western India.

It blows across Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh, and reaches into Bihar.

It forms because that belt heats up more fiercely in summer than anywhere else in India, pushing day temperatures past 45°C and setting up a steep pressure gradient.

Air crossing that surface arrives dry and searing, and exposure to it can be fatal — over exactly the region option (d) names.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
South and Southwestern — South India is peninsular — sea on three sides keeps its summer range moderate, so no comparable dry, desiccating land wind builds up there.
(b)
East and Northeastern — The east and north-east are humid in summer. Their pre-monsoon signature is the rain-bearing Kalbaisakhi of Bengal and the Bardoli Chheerha of Assam, not a dry wind.
(c)
West and Southwestern — The Konkan and Malabar coasts are maritime. Their pre-monsoon event is the mango shower, which ripens the crop rather than scorching it.

Concept

The hot weather season runs March to May, and the belt of highest temperature shifts steadily northward through it.

By May the north-western plains are the hottest part of India, and a low-pressure trough sits over them.

Air moving across that surface gains heat and loses moisture — that is the Loo.

India's pre-monsoon local winds each carry a regional name, and they are worth learning as one set rather than one at a time.

The Loo is a daytime wind of the hot weather season and slackens after sunset. It is not a monsoon wind and it brings no rain.

Key facts

The Loo blows over north and north-western India in May and June, mainly during the afternoon.
It is associated with the intensely heated plains of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh.
Kalbaisakhi is the pre-monsoon thunderstorm of West Bengal, and Bardoli Chheerha the pre-monsoon shower of Assam.
Mango showers are the pre-monsoon rains of Kerala and Karnataka.

Study next

The four seasons of the Indian climatic cycle, especially the March-May hot weather seasonPre-monsoon local storms: Kalbaisakhi, Norwesters, Bardoli Chheerha, mango showersThe monsoon trough over north-west India and its role in the burst of the monsoon

Common traps

Reading 'hot wind' as 'desert or coastal wind' and picking a western option — the Loo belongs to the northern plains, not the coast.
Confusing the Loo with the Kalbaisakhi, which is a rain-bearing thunderstorm of eastern India.

SSC lifts the local-wind list from the NCERT climate chapter, usually as 'in which region does it blow' or as a wind-to-state match.

The same chapter supplies GA Q.4 of this shift, on the easterly jet stream.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.