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Climate
The climate of Assam is characterised by its extreme humidity. Its most
distinguishing feature is the copious rainfall between March and May at a time
when precipitation in upper India is at its minimum. Climatically the year may be divided into the cold season and the rainy. The
cold weather lasts from October to February and the rest of the year is rainy.
The southwest monsoon begin from middle of June. The neighbourhood of Cherapunji
and Mawsynram are known to receive the highest rainfall in the world. It is
concentrated in four months, June to September.
Soil
Assam's soil been classified into the following three types - red loam soil,
lateritic soil and alluvial soil. The entire Mizo hills, part of Cachar,
Garo, Khasi-Jaintia hills and Sibsagar are capped by red loam soil. A small part of
Cachar, large areas of Khasi and Jaintia hills, part of Sibsagar and Nowgong are
covered by lateritic soil. The entire Lakhimpur, Darrang, Kamrup, Goalpara, part
of Garo hills and Sibsagar are made up of alluvial soil cover.
Earth quake
Earth quakes occur in the region of marked instability of the crust of the
earth. Most of the earth quakes in India originate in Himalayan zone. At the western extremity, where the main Himalayas meet the Baluchistan area
of mountains, and in the eastern extremity, where the Burmese area meets the
Eastern Himalayas, the crust is most unstable. As such, the Baluchistan and
Assam areas are most susceptible to earth movements. Another zone of instability
occurs along the margin of the Shillong plateau.
Rivers
 Due
to heavy rainfall in the Himalayan and other watersheds of the eastern
India region, Assam is endowed with extensive river system consisting
of the Brahmaputra, the Kusiyara and the Barak and their tributaries.
All the rivers in Assam are liable to floods, mainly because they
receive heavy rainfall within a short time. These rivers are in their
early stage of maturity and are very active agents of erosion. The
river waters collect a tremendous amount of silt and other debris
and raise the level of the river beds. Therefore, it becomes impossible
for the main channel to cope with the vast volume of water received
during the rains.
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