India possesses a large variety of climates ranging from extremely hot desert regions to high altitude locations with severely cold conditions similar to northern Europe. Within India it is possible to define six regions with distinct climates. The six climates are normally designated as Hot and Dry, Warm and Humid, Moderate, Cold and Sunny, Cold and Cloudy and Composite. The criteria of allocating any location in India to one of the first five climate zones are that the defined conditions prevail for more than six months. In cases where none of these categories can be identified for six months or longer, the climatic zone is called Composite. On this basis, Bansal and Minke, 1988, originally produced the Climatic Zones in India Map by evaluation of the mean monthly data from 233 weather stations, and then delineating the six climatic zones.