🇮🇳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, tropical rainforest Af on the Andamans and parts of the northeast including Meghalaya, hot desert BWh across Rajasthan, semi-arid steppe BSh on the Deccan rain-shadow, alpine and tundra Cwb, Dwc, and ET across the Himalayan belt, and ice-cap EF on the highest peaks.

New Delhi on the northern plains averages 14°C in January and 34°C in May with 770 mm of rainfall arriving almost entirely from the southwest monsoon between July and September. Mumbai on the Konkan coast records 24°C in January and 30°C in May with 2,400 mm falling in a strong southwest monsoon from June through September, while Chennai on the Coromandel coast shows 26°C and 32°C with 1,400 mm peaking during the northeast monsoon from October to December.

Kolkata averages 19°C and 30°C with 1,640 mm, Bengaluru on the Deccan plateau 20°C and 27°C with 970 mm, and Jaipur in Rajasthan 14°C and 34°C with 660 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 averages −7°C and 18°C with only 100 mm, while Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley records 1°C and 25°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 2010 north Indian 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 11 Indian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Delhi, around 34.1°C, while Delhi records the coldest January nights near 8°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 0.7°C.