UKPSC Prelims 2025 General Studies Paper-I · Question 98 of 149

Correct — B, Mango Shower.

From late March to May the southern peninsula is hot and humid, and the south-west monsoon has not yet arrived. Convection over the warm seas on either side fires scattered afternoon and evening thundershowers along the coast and the adjoining interior.

On the Kerala side, and in the neighbouring parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, this pre-monsoon rain is called the Mango Shower — the name comes from its role in bringing the mango crop to early ripeness.

Carry away the naming logic: many Indian pre-monsoon storms are named for the crop they help or the month they strike, so the name itself tells you the region. A mango in the name points south; Baishakh in the name points to Bengal.

• (a)
  Loo — The Loo is a hot, dry, dusty westerly that blows across the north Indian plains from late morning into the evening through May and June. It pushes temperatures up and carries no rain.

  It belongs to the same hot weather season as the keyed option, which is the whole resemblance. Its home is the plains of the north, not the southern coast the stem names.

  Pick it for the hot dry summer wind of the northern plains.

• (c)
  Kal Baishakhi — Kal Baishakhi means the calamity of the month of Baishakh. It is the violent evening nor'wester of West Bengal and Bangladesh in April and May — squally winds, thunder, and a short burst of heavy rain. Assam calls the same storms Bardoli Chheerha.

  It shares the pre-monsoon timing with the keyed option, so season alone will not separate the two. The region in the stem does the separating: this storm's home is the eastern plains and the north-east.

  Pick it for the pre-monsoon nor'westers of Bengal and Assam.

• (d)
  Mistral — The Mistral is a cold, dry, gusty northerly that funnels down the Rhône valley of southern France to the Gulf of Lion, most forceful in winter and spring. It clears the sky and drops the temperature sharply.

  It sits in this list as a European name among Indian ones. Placing it correctly, rather than dismissing it as unfamiliar, is the skill the option tests.

  Pick it for a cold local wind of France's Mediterranean coast.

A local wind is air movement created by conditions inside a small region — differential heating of land and sea, the shape of a valley, a nearby warm water body — rather than by the planet-wide pressure belts. Because its effects are felt in one place, it earns a local name.

India's hot weather season, roughly March to May, generates several of these. Some are dry heat winds over the interior plains; others are moist, convective thunderstorm systems near the coasts and in the east, which do bring rain.

So "local wind" in Indian geography covers both the dry blast and the short pre-monsoon downpour that arrives with it.

• Mango showers are pre-monsoon thundershowers of roughly late March to May over Kerala and coastal Karnataka, extending to parts of Tamil Nadu.
• The name comes from the showers helping the mango crop ripen early.
• The same pre-monsoon rain over Karnataka's uplands is also called blossom shower or coffee shower, for its effect on coffee flowering.
• The Loo is a hot, dry westerly of the north Indian plains, blowing during the day in May and June.
• Kal Baishakhi are the April-May nor'westers of West Bengal and Bangladesh; the name refers to the Bengali month Baishakh.
• In Assam the same nor'westers are known as Bardoli Chheerha, and they benefit tea, jute and rice.
• The Mistral is a cold, dry northerly that blows down the Rhône valley to France's Mediterranean coast.
• The south-west monsoon normally reaches the Kerala coast around 1 June, after the pre-monsoon shower season.

• The stem says "local winds", but the keyed option is a rain event; treating rain-bearing systems as disqualified pushes you toward a dry wind by elimination.
• Kal Baishakhi also falls inside the pre-monsoon window, so timing cannot separate it from the keyed option — the region named in the stem is what does.
• The Loo and mango showers share the same season; the split is dry heat over the northern plains against convective showers on the southern coast.
• A list that mixes a European wind with Indian ones rewards knowing where each name belongs, rather than eliminating the one that sounds foreign.
• Mango shower and blossom shower are names for the same pre-monsoon rain seen through different crops; keep the crop-to-name link straight.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Kal Baishakhi, the violent pre-monsoon evening storms, are chiefly associated with which region?

  • (a)West Bengal and adjoining Bangladesh
  • (b)Kerala and coastal Karnataka
  • (c)Rajasthan and Gujarat
  • (d)Punjab and Haryana
  Answera — Kal Baishakhi are the April-May nor'westers of West Bengal and Bangladesh, named for the Bengali month Baishakh; Assam knows them as Bardoli Chheerha.

  Kerala and coastal Karnataka get mango or blossom showers instead, so (b) names the wrong storm. Rajasthan and Gujarat in (c) and Punjab and Haryana in (d) lie in the belt swept by the hot dry Loo in May and June.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following best describes the Loo?

  • (a)A cold, dry northerly of the Rhône valley in southern France
  • (b)A hot, dry westerly blowing over the north Indian plains during May and June
  • (c)A violent evening thunderstorm wind of West Bengal in April and May
  • (d)A pre-monsoon shower of coastal Karnataka that ripens the mango crop
  Answerb — the Loo is the hot, dry, dusty daytime westerly of the north Indian plains in the peak summer months.

  Option (a) describes the Mistral, a European wind. Option (c) describes Kal Baishakhi. Option (d) describes the mango shower. Each of the three is a real phenomenon with a different name, which is what makes them usable distractors.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Mistral is best described as:

  • (a)A hot, dry, dusty wind of Egypt blowing from the south in spring
  • (b)A cold, dry wind blowing from central France down to the Mediterranean coast
  • (c)A warm, dry wind descending the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
  • (d)A warm, dry wind descending the Andes over the Argentine plains
  Answerb — the Mistral funnels cold, dry air down the Rhône valley from the interior of France to the Gulf of Lion, strongest in winter and spring.

  Option (a) describes the Khamsin of Egypt. Option (c) describes the Chinook of the North American Rockies. Option (d) describes the Zonda of Argentina. All four name real local winds, so the mechanism and the location described are what separate them.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The coastal districts of Tamil Nadu receive the greater part of their annual rainfall during which period?

  • (a)March to May, from pre-monsoon thundershowers
  • (b)June to September, from the south-west monsoon
  • (c)October to December, from the north-east monsoon
  • (d)January to February, from western disturbances
  Answerc — the Tamil Nadu coast draws its main rain from the north-east or retreating monsoon between October and December, when winds cross the Bay of Bengal and pick up moisture before striking the coast.

  Pre-monsoon showers in (a) are useful but light. During the south-west monsoon in (b) the coast lies leeward of the Western Ghats and runs roughly parallel to the Bay branch, so it stays comparatively dry.

  Western disturbances in (d) bring winter rain to north-west India rather than to the far south.