India recorded extreme weather on 99 per cent of days from January to September

India faced extreme weather events on 99 per cent of days in the first nine months of 2025, marked by heat and cold waves, lightning, storms, heavy rain, floods and landslides. These events claimed 4,064 lives, affected 9.47 million hectares of crops, destroyed 99,533 houses, and killed about 58,982 animals, according to Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down To Earth’s Climate India 2025 report, an annual assessment of extreme weather events.

The report notes a sharp surge in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across India between January-September 2025 compared with the same period in the previous three years. By contrast, during the same period in 2024 such events occurred on 255 days, causing 3,238 deaths.

In 2025, at least 18 states/UTs recorded their highest number of extreme‑weather days since 2022. Maharashtra was the worst‑hit in terms of cropped area affected, with 8.4 million ha, followed by Punjab (0.26 million ha) and Uttar Pradesh (0.21 million ha).

“Regionally, the northwest experienced the highest frequency of extreme weather events in 2025, with 257 event days, followed by the east and northeast at 229 days. The northwest — which includes Punjab and the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, among others that made headlines for their devastating monsoon events — also saw the highest number of deaths: 1,342, followed by 1,093 in central India,” the report said.

Himachal Pradesh experienced extreme weather on almost 80 per cent of the 273 days in the first nine months of 2025, the highest in the country. Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest fatalities at 532, followed by Andhra Pradesh (484 deaths) and Jharkhand (478 deaths).

Speaking at the launch of the report, CSE director general and Down To Earth editor Sunita Narain said, “Given the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, the country no longer needs to count just the disasters. What we need to understand is the scale — the scale of mitigation that Belém is talking about, the scale on which the whole world has to come together. But it is also about what we need to do, keeping in mind that there will be more and more such disasters.”