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Not The Usual Summer: What's Driving The Unpredictable Shifts In Weather Across India?
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Temperatures are settling around 35-36℃ in Delhi, a sharp contrast to last year, when they soared to 42℃ for most of June, reaching a peak of 45.2℃
Frequent thunderstorms, dust storms and powerful gusts of winds causing a sudden fall in temperatures have made the summer of 2025 a stark contrast to the typical searing, brutal heat that India typically experiences every year. The MeT has now forecasted a milder June ahead with more rains, offering a welcome respite for Northwest India, which endured its warmest-ever June in 123 years last summer.
Unlike last year's unrelenting heatwaves, this summer has seen fewer and shorter heatwave spells. While heatwaves have swept Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir from May 16-24, and parts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana on May 20 and 21, their impacts have been limited compared to last summer, when temperatures touched 50℃ in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and hovered around 44 to 48℃ for days in Delhi-NCR.
'The rainfall has been very good across India this May, except for some parts of Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern states. Overall, India saw above-normal rains. So, the maximum temperatures also dropped. Though the night temperatures were above-normal largely due to cloudy weather, and there were warm nights," said Dr Mrityunjay Mohapatra, Director-General of Meteorology, IMD.
Not just May, India saw above-normal rains during the entire summer season. The rainfall from March 1 to May 27 was nearly 28 per cent above-normal, with all sub-divisions reporting above-normal rains, except for Jammu and Kashmir, and north-eastern states. So, even though the temperatures shot up to 40-45℃, they also plummeted quickly following thunderstorms and gusty winds.
Meteorologists explain that thunderstorms are a common occurrence during the peak of summer, especially May, when intense heat makes the atmosphere unstable. Normally, Delhi experiences 5-6 thunderstorms during May and June. However, this year, they brought more rains, in interaction with other local systems.
The weather was also influenced by movements of intense western disturbances, two of which hit around May 2-3, bringing thunderstorms and heavy rains. The first also received intense moisture from Arabian Sea, resulting in over 77mm rain in Delhi on May 2, while the second was slow-moving and intense, keeping temperature from rising.
Scientists term these changes inter-annual variations, which are not usually part of a long-term trend. Additionally, neutral conditions prevail over the equatorial Pacific Ocean, so there is absence of El-Nino—an ocean phenomenon linked to extreme summer.
So, while the summer this year was milder, the ongoing climate change and rising temperatures worldwide are sure to make the heat more unbearable in coming years, due to increased intensity, frequency and duration of heatwaves.
Dr Krishna Achutarao, Dean (Faculty), IIT-Delhi, said even typically humid monsoon months—usually free of heatwaves—may experience extreme heat, with temperatures exceeding 40℃. 'It is particularly worrisome because by then, if the monsoon has settled, it is going to be humid, so those are dangerous heat conditions that we hope do not unfold," he said at the recently held India Heat Summit 2025 organised by Climate Trends.
This year, too, heatwaves hit early this year, starting around March 10, with the first spell lasting five days across Gujarat and Rajasthan. The second wave, from March 15-18, affected east-central India. Earlier in April, intense heat persisted from the 1-10 in Gujarat, and from 6-10 across Northwest India and central India.
Rajasthan faced heatwaves from April 15-19, while the period between April 22 and 25 saw heatwaves in Bihar, Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, East Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, and parts of Southwest Rajasthan on April 29 and 30.
