One extreme weather event every five days in the first nine months of 2025 in Telangana

Telangana has witnessed one extreme weather event almost every five days on an average during the first nine months of 2025, as reported by a study from the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Titled ‘Climate India 2025: An Assessment of Extreme Weather Events January-September’, the study noted that Telangana has experienced a total of 51 days of extreme weather events in 273 days of the year. Overall, India has witnessed extreme weather events 99% of the time — 270 out of 273 days — in one State or the other.

The India Meteorology Department (IMD) classifies lightning and storms, heavy rains, floods and landslides, heat waves, cold days or cold waves, snowfalls, cloudbursts and cyclones as extreme weather events.

Himachal Pradesh experienced extreme weather during almost 80% of the study period, which is the highest in any single state in the country. Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of fatalities at 532, followed by Andhra Pradesh (484 deaths) and Jharkhand (478 deaths).

While Telangana appears relatively safer with only 19% days of extreme weather, it is also protected from majority of the scourges by dint of its location and landlocked status.

A total of 23 fatalities and 4,573 hectares of crop loss have been attributed to the extreme weather events here. Zero loss reported in terms of animal deaths and damaged houses does not reflect the true picture, as frequent floods had resulted in both losses, but not recorded by the Disaster Management division of the Home Ministry from where the data has been collected.

At 22, majority of the human deaths recorded in Telangana were due to lightning and storm, which occurred on 22 days in the nine month of the study period. The remaining one death was attributed to heavy rains and floods, which again reflect inaccuracies in recording the data, as in September alone, three persons were washed away in storm water, with the body of only one person traced to Valigonda. In April, there was one more death in Suraram due to heavy rain.

The number of extreme weather days has been on the rise for the past four years, and for Telangana, the rise has been over 21%. In 2022, the State recorded 42 days of extreme weather events, which had risen rapidly to 52 the next year, and to 50 the subsequent year.

The study also analysed the maximum and minimum temperatures in State capitals during monsoons to understand how they disrupt the core dynamics of the monsoon system, triggering erratic and extreme weather events ranging from floods to drought.

As per the report, Telangana has experienced higher than the normal maximum temperatures on 34 of the 121 days studied between June and September, 2025, and 66 days of lower than normal maximum temperatures, with the anomalies ranging between 4 and -7 degrees Celsius.

There were 25 days of higher than normal minimum temperatures and 44 days of lower than normal minimum temperatures, the shift ranging between 2 and -3 degrees Celsius.