UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 75 of 150

Correct — A, Both 1 and 2. The two statements are not independent facts; the second is the cause of the first. Western Europe — the British Isles, France, the Low Countries, western Germany, Denmark and the Norwegian seaboard — lies between roughly 45° and 60° north, squarely inside the belt of prevailing westerlies that blows from the sub-tropical high towards the sub-polar low in both hemispheres between about 30° and 60° of latitude. Those westerlies reach Europe having crossed the North Atlantic, so they arrive warm for the latitude, laden with moisture, and carrying a near-continuous procession of depressions along the polar front. The consequence is the climate that geographers call the marine west coast, oceanic or British type — small annual and daily temperature ranges, mild winters far warmer than the latitude would suggest, and precipitation in every month of the year, generally between 50 and 250 centimetres annually. 'No dry season' is in fact the formal defining criterion of this climate type in the Köppen scheme, which is precisely what statement 1 asserts. Both statements are therefore correct and the answer is (a). One honest refinement to carry with you: 'Western Europe' in the strictest political sense also reaches down to Iberia and Mediterranean France, and those southern margins DO have a dry summer, because the westerly belt swings polewards in summer and leaves them under sub-tropical high pressure. The statement is being made about the oceanic core of Western Europe, which is the standard textbook usage, and on that reading it is exact.

• (b)Neither 1 nor 2 — Both statements are in fact correct, so this option fails twice over. Rejecting statement 2 usually comes from confusing the westerlies with the trade winds, or from a vague sense that Europe is 'too far north' for a named planetary wind belt. It is not: the westerlies occupy 30°–60° in each hemisphere, and north-west Europe sits in the heart of that band, which is why its depressions and fronts arrive from the Atlantic and travel eastwards.
• (c)Only 1 — Accepts the rainfall but rejects the wind belt, which is the wrong half to doubt — the wind belt is the reason for the rainfall. Western Europe lies in the mid-latitude westerlies, and it is those winds, crossing a warm North Atlantic and steering polar-front depressions inland, that deliver moisture in every month. If you accept year-round rain here and deny the westerlies, you are left with no mechanism to explain it.
• (d)Only 2 — Accepts the westerlies but denies year-round rainfall. This is the most defensible of the wrong answers and it usually comes from importing the Mediterranean pattern — hot dry summer, wet mild winter — into the whole of western Europe. That regime belongs to southern Europe, to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. North-west Europe's oceanic climate has no dry season at all; rain falls in all twelve months, with a mild autumn and winter maximum in the British Isles and along the Norwegian coast.

Europe west of about 15° East is divided among three broad climatic regimes, and the divider is how far the planetary wind belts migrate with the sun. North-west Europe stays in the westerlies all year and gets the marine west coast climate — cool summers, mild winters, rain in every month. Southern Europe swings between the westerlies in winter and the sub-tropical high in summer, giving the Mediterranean climate — wet mild winters, hot dry summers. Eastern Europe, cut off from the Atlantic by distance, has a continental climate with cold winters and a summer rainfall maximum. The warmth of the north-western regime is amplified by the North Atlantic Drift, the eastward continuation of the Gulf Stream, which carries warm water to the European seaboard and keeps ports such as Bergen and Murmansk far milder than their latitude allows.

This is a cause-and-effect pair dressed up as two independent claims, and the trick to answering it is to check whether one statement explains the other. It does: the westerlies, blowing off a warm ocean and steering an endless train of frontal depressions, are the mechanism that produces rain in all months. The temptation is to reject statement 1 because you remember that 'Europe' includes the Mediterranean, where summers are famously dry. Read carefully — the stem says Western Europe, which in the geographer's vocabulary means the Atlantic-facing oceanic belt, not the Mediterranean south. A second useful check is to run the same argument in the Southern Hemisphere: southern Chile, southern New Zealand and Tasmania at the same latitudes carry the same oceanic climate for the same reason — a westerly airflow coming off a wide ocean, which confirms that the westerly belt, not anything peculiar to Europe, is doing the work.

• The westerlies blow from the sub-tropical high-pressure belt towards the sub-polar low between roughly 30° and 60° latitude in BOTH hemispheres — south-westerly in the Northern Hemisphere, north-westerly in the Southern.
• The marine west coast (oceanic, or British type) climate is defined by a low annual and daily temperature range, precipitation in every month with no dry season, and annual totals typically between 50 and 250 cm.
• The North Atlantic Drift, the continuation of the Gulf Stream, keeps north-west Europe far warmer than its latitude — the Norwegian coast stays ice-free well above the Arctic Circle. Note that it is a WARM current; UPSC has set a trap on this exact point.
• The same climate occurs on the west coasts of other continents in the 40°–60° belt — British Columbia and coastal Washington and Oregon, southern Chile, Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand.
• The same westerlies, in their sub-tropical jet form, bring winter rain to north-west India as western disturbances — extratropical cyclones that originate over the Mediterranean and Caspian region and travel eastwards.
• Southern Europe, on the Mediterranean shore, is the exception within the continent: the westerlies retreat polewards in summer and the sub-tropical high takes over, producing the hot dry summer and wet mild winter of the Mediterranean type.

• Importing the Mediterranean pattern into all of Europe. The dry summer belongs to southern Europe; north-west Europe has no dry season at all.
• Placing the westerlies in only one hemisphere, or giving them the wrong latitudes. They occupy roughly 30°–60° in BOTH hemispheres — UPSC once falsified a statement by writing the belt as '30° N to 60° S'.
• Calling the Gulf Stream or the North Atlantic Drift a cold current. Both are warm, and it is that warmth which makes north-west Europe's winters mild for the latitude.

UPPSC sets this as a two-statement item on a named world region, usually with both statements true; UPSC prefers to describe the climate without naming it — 'low annual and daily temperature range, precipitation throughout the year' — and ask you to identify the type, or to falsify one detail inside a statement about the westerly belt.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The marine west coast (British type) climate is NOT found in which one of the following regions?

  • (a)The South Island of New Zealand
  • (b)Coastal British Columbia in Canada
  • (c)Southern Chile
  • (d)The coast of Morocco and Algeria

  Answer(d) The coast of Morocco and Algeria — that is a Mediterranean climate with a hot dry summer. The other three lie on west-facing coasts in the 40°–60° belt of westerlies and share the oceanic regime of north-west Europe: mild winters, cool summers and rain in every month.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Consider the following statements about the North Atlantic Drift: 1. It is a warm ocean current and an extension of the Gulf Stream. 2. It helps keep the ports of the Norwegian coast ice-free in winter. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  • (a)Only 1
  • (b)Only 2
  • (c)Both 1 and 2
  • (d)Neither 1 nor 2

  Answer(c) Both 1 and 2 — the North Atlantic Drift is the warm north-eastward continuation of the Gulf Stream, and together with the prevailing westerlies it keeps north-west Europe, including Norwegian ports well north of the Arctic Circle, ice-free and mild in winter.