🇮🇳India

India extends from 8°04′ to 37°06′N across approximately 3,287,263 square kilometers, spanning the entire Indian subcontinent from the great Himalayan barrier in the north (with Kangchenjunga at 8,586 m on the India-Nepal border, K2 at 8,611 m in disputed Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Nanda Devi at 7,816 m) through the Indo-Gangetic Plain encompassing Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, and Kolkata, the Thar Desert in the west, the Deccan Plateau covering peninsular India, the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats coastal mountains, and the long peninsular coastline ending at Cape Comorin and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This extraordinary geographic range produces a remarkable climate spectrum: humid subtropical Cwa across the northern plains, tropical savanna Aw across the Deccan, tropical monsoon Am on the Western Ghats and Goa-Kerala-Konkan coast, hot desert BWh across Rajasthan, semi-arid steppe BSh on the Deccan rain-shadow, highland, subarctic and tundra Cwb, Dwc, and ET across the Himalayan belt, and ice-cap EF on the highest peaks.

New Delhi on the northern plains sees January highs of 19°C with nights of 9°C and May highs of 41°C, with 770 mm of rainfall arriving mostly from the southwest monsoon between July and September. Mumbai on the Konkan coast sees January highs of 31°C with nights of 17°C and May highs of 34°C, with 2,500 mm falling in a strong southwest monsoon from June through September, while Chennai on the Coromandel coast reaches January highs of 29°C and May highs of 37°C with 1,400 mm peaking during the northeast monsoon from October to December.

Kolkata sees January and May highs of 25°C and 36°C with 1,640 mm, Bengaluru on the Deccan plateau 28°C and 33°C with 1,080 mm, and Jaipur in Rajasthan 23°C and 41°C with 600 mm. Cherrapunji in Meghalaya is famously among the world's wettest places with 11,800 mm annually. Leh in Ladakh in the rain-shadow Himalaya sees January highs of 2°C with nights of −13°C and July highs around 28°C, with very little precipitation, while Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley records January highs of 7°C with nights of −2°C and July highs of 30°C, with 700 mm and reliable winter snow.

The Indian summer monsoon is the dominant climate driver with strong ENSO modulation. Recent extreme events include the June 2013 Uttarakhand floods and Kedarnath disaster (approximately 6,000 lives), the 2018 Kerala floods, Cyclone Amphan in May 2020, Cyclone Tauktae in May 2021, the May 2016 heatwave reaching 51.0°C at Phalodi (India's all-time record), the April–May 2022 northwest heatwave, the 2023 Sikkim glacial lake outburst, Himalayan glacier retreat, and changing monsoon patterns.

Our archive covers 532 Indian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The hottest July afternoons are in Sri Ganganagar, with average highs around 37.7°C, while Anantnag has the coldest January nights, with average lows near −5.6°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 0.8°C.