Our weather is a result of many factors: the rotation of Earth on its axis, its revolution around the sun and the unequal distribution of sunlight. Areas around the equator where the sunrays fall directly are hotter than the areas around the poles, where the sunrays reach at an angle. The hot air in the areas around the equator swirl in a downward pattern, creating a high pressure. Heatwaves are the result of the trapped air in these areas. The sinking air also acts like a cap, trapping the warm ground air in place...

The season of festivals is here. But something feels different. My mother tells me that about 25 years ago, the winters would make a precise entry on Dussehra, which usually falls between September and October. A week before Dussehra, we would take the warm clothes out of an old trunk. "Now, it is late November when the weather becomes cold. Only a few days in December are cold enough to wear warm clothes," says my mother. We read in books that India has six distinct seasons—Grishma seasons (summer), Varsha (monsoon), Sharata (autumn), Hemanta (pre-winter), Shishira (winter) …

The sun's heat is the most important factor in the weather patterns around the globe. Warmer ocean temperatures due to human-made activities give storms a bigger battery which not only increases the intensity but also the frequency of hurricanes and cyclones. Given the hurricane of catastrophic climate events that took place around the world, August and September should be renamed as tropical cyclone months. For the first time in seven years, the Atlantic Basin faced more than three hurricanes consecutively in the year 2017...

Archana and her father came out of the Chennai airport into what looked like a scene from an action movie. It was raining, but she could sense when the plane touched down. Now, at the airport, the cars stood honking one behind the other. Sridhar uncle was waiting in the car. They all got in and joined the long queue of cars waiting to enter the dark brown stream that formed the road out of the airport.