Statement 1 is correct. The Mediterranean lands receive most of their precipitation in winter when the Westerlies shift equator wards. In the northern hemisphere, the prevailing on-shore Westerlies bring much cyclonic rain from the Atlantic (Typical to Mediterranean Climate). The rain comes in heavy showers and only on a few days with bright sunny periods between them. This is another characteristic feature of the Mediterranean winter rain. Though the downpours are infrequent they are often very torrential and in mountainous districts, destructive floods occur.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The Savanna or Sudan Climate is a transitional type of climate found between the equatorial forests and the trade wind hot deserts.

Statement 3 is correct.

1. The Mediterranean lands are also known as the world’s orchard lands.
2. A wide range of citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes, citrons and grapefruit are grown.
3. The fruit trees have long roots to draw water from considerable depths during the long summer drought.

Source) GC Leong, chapter 19; page number 141

Many local winds, sonic hot, others cold arc common around the Mediterranean Sea. The topography of the region with the high Alps in the north, the Sahara desert in the south, continental interiors in the east and the open Atlantic on the west gives rise to great differences in temperature, pressure and precipitation. Thus, plays an important role in determining the Mediterranean type of climate.

Some of the major winds which blows around the Mediterranean Sea are:

1. Mistral: Mistral is a cold wind from the north, rushing down the Rhone valley in violent gusts between 40 and 80 miles per hour. The velocity of the Mistral is intensified by the funneling effect in the valley between the Alps and the Central Massif [Plateau in France].

2. Sirocco: This is a hot, dry dusty wind which originates in the Sahara Desert. The Sirocco blows outwards in a southerly direction (south to north) from the desert interiors into the cooler Mediterranean Sea. After crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the Sirocco is slightly cooled by the absorption of the water vapour. Its scorching heat withers [To dry up or shrivel from loss of moisture] vegetation and crops. This may be ‘blood rain’ because the wind is carrying the red dust of the Sahara Desert.

3. Bora: Occurs along the eastern shore of the Northern Adriatic and is similar in some respects to the Mistral. It is a NE wind occurring chiefly in winter, when it may attain gale force. Violent gusts and squalls, sometimes reaching 100 knots, occur on the eastern side of the Adriatic constituting a danger to shipping, especially as they often set in with little or no warning.

Simoom is a strong, dry, desert wind that blows in the Sahara, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and the desert of Arabia. Hence, the correct answer is (c).

Source) GC Leong; Chapter 19; page number 143

The Mediterranean climate is entirely confined to the western portion of continental masses, between 30° and 45° north and south of the equator. The basic cause of this type of climate is the shifting of the wind belts.

In summer when the sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer, the belt of influence of the Westerlies is shifted a little pole wards. Rain bearing winds are therefore not likely to reach the Mediterranean lands. Also, the prevailing Trade Winds [tropical easterlies] are off-shore and there is practically no rain.

he Mediterranean lands receive most of their precipitation in winter when the Westerlies shift equator wards. In the northern hemisphere, the prevailing on-shore Westerlies bring much cyclonic rain from the Atlantic. The rain comes in heavy showers and only on a few days with bright sunny periods between them. This is another characteristic feature of the Mediterranean winter rain.

Mediterranean evergreen forests are open woodlands with evergreen oaks. They are found only in the climatically most favored regions. The trees are normally low, even stunted, with massive trunks, small leathery leaves and a wide-spreading root system in search of water. The cork oaks are specially valued for their thick barks, used for making wine-bottle corks and for export around the world. In Australia, the eucalyptus forests replace the evergreen oak.

Source) GC Leong; Chapter 19; page number 144

Steppe type has light summer rain which also does not allow growth of forests. The British type, Laurentian type and China type of climatic enjoy rainfall all throughout the year, however scanty all seasons have some amount of rainfall.

Source) GC Leong, Chapter 20; page number 149

Statement 1 is incorrect. The temperate continental climate has little maritime influence. Thus, the climate is continental with extreme of temperatures. Summers are very warm and winters are very cold in the continental steppes of Eurasia because of the enormous distance from the nearest sea. 

Statement 2 is incorrect. Laurentian type of climate is not found across the North America. The cool temperate eastern margin (laurentian) climate is an intermediate type of climate between the British and the Siberian type of climate. It has fearures of both the maritime and the continental climates. The laurentian type of climate is found only in two regions. One is north-eastern North America, including eastern Canada, north-east U.S.A., i.e. Maritime Provinces and the New England states.) and Newfoundland. The other region is the eastern coastlands of Asia, including eastern Siberia, North China, Manchuria, Korea and Northern Japan.

Source) GC Leong, Chapter 20; page number 148

All of the above are characteristics of China type of climate.

• China type climate experiences South East monsoon during summer with heavy rainfall and North West monsoon during winter with dry and cold weather.
• It has high annual temperature range. During winter a steep pressure gradient is set up between the cold Mongolia and Siberia and the warmer Pacific coastlands. This leads to the flow of continental polar streams.
• It is characterized by the formation of tropical cyclone in southern China. E.g. typhoons. The cyclones originate in the Pacific Ocean and move westward to the coastal lands bordering the South China Sea.

Source) GC Leong; Chapter 21; page number 156

In the Cool Temperate Eastern Margin (Laurentian) climate, agriculture is less important in view of the severity of the winter and its long duration in but, due to the maritime influence and the heavy rainfall enable some hardy crops to be raised for local needs. Potatoes thrive over large areas of the podzoltzcd soils, while hardy cereals like oats and barley can be sown and successfully harvested before the onset of the cold winter. A number of other interesting crops arc produced in the Asiatic region such as soya beans (northern China, Manchuria and Korea are amongst the world's leading producers), groundnuts, sesame, rape seeds, tung oil and mulberry. In the North American region, arable farming is not carried out on a sizable scale, except in the more favoured localities.

Source) GC Leong; Chapter 22; page number 166

The warm temperate Eastern margin climate is found between 20° and 35° N and S latitude (warm temperate latitudes just outside the tropics); on the east coast in both hemispheres.

Different variants of Warm Temperate Eastern Margin Climate include the:

Temperate monsoon Climate or China Type Climate,

Gulf Type Climate and

Natal Type Climate.

Source) GC Leong; Chapter; Chapter 21; page number 155

• All of the statements given above are correct: 
  • The Mediterranean lands receive most of their precipitation in winters (~65-70 %), when the westerlies shift equatorward, with average temp. in winters approx. 10 – 12⁰C. In the northern hemisphere, the prevailing onshore westerlies bring much cyclonic rain from the Atlantic to the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
  • The summer months have a relatively higher temperature (~ 20* – 30* C), with the highest temp. recorded are away from the coast & in more eastern continental the Mediterranean. In summers, when the sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer, the belt of influence of westerlies is shifted a little polewards. Rain bearing winds, therefore, are not likely to reach Mediterranean lands.
  • Many local winds, some hot, others cold are common around the Mediterranean Sea due to the varied topography of the region.

• Option B is the Correct Answer: 
  • Sirocco is the warm, dry, dusty local wind which blows from the Sahara Desert over the central Mediterranean, southern Italy and may even reach Spain etc. 
  • Mistral is a cold and dry wind which blows in Spain and France from North-west to South-East direction, mostly occur during winter months.
  • Harmattan is hot and dry wind originates from the Sahara Desert and blows towards the Guinea coast of Africa.
  • Fohn is dry and warm wind resulting due to adiabatic heating on the leeward side of the Mountain range. These winds are more common on the northern side of Alps in Switzerland and with the arrival of these winds, there is a rapid rise in temperature.
  • Norte is a strong cold northeasterly wind which blows in Mexico and on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

• Option C is the Correct Answer: 

• Option D is the Correct Answer: Steppes are found in the continental interiors. They are usually found in the temperate latitudes and hence come under the influence of Westerly winds. These regions are under the effect of continentality and hence experience extremities in temperature. Summers are warm with the average temperature in the range of 18-20 degrees centigrade. Winters are usually cold with occasional snowfall. The annual range of temperature is quite high due to extremes of temperature observed in this type of climate, as temperature well below freezing point in winters & approx. 15⁰ in summers. The average rainfall may be taken as about 45 cm, but this varies according to the location from 25 cm to 75 cm.

Option A is the Correct Answer: It is an extremely cold north-easterly or easterly wind which blows in the central Siberia and eastern Russia.

• Option B is Correct Answer:
  • Fohn: warm dry southerly off the northern side of the Alps and North Italy, the name gave rise to the fén-fēng or ‘burning wind’ of Taiwan.
  • The Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry downslope winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California.
  • Zonda wind is a regional term for the foehn wind that often occurs on the eastern slope of the Andes, in Argentina. 
  • Sarmun is the local winds of Kurdistan region.