According to a study by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), Telangana witnessed one extreme weather event almost every five days during the first nine months of 2025.
A study titled “Climate India 2025: An Assessment of Extreme Weather Events January-September” said that Telangana experienced a total of 51 days of extreme weather events out of 273 days in the year. Overall, India witnessed extreme weather events 99% of the time – 270 out of 273 days – in one state or the other.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) classifies lightning and thunderstorms, heavy rains, floods and landslides, heat waves, cold days or cold waves, snowfall, cloudbursts and cyclones as extreme weather events.
Himachal Pradesh experienced extreme weather during nearly 80% of the period under review, which is the most among any state in the country. Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of deaths at 532, followed by Andhra Pradesh (484 deaths) and Jharkhand (478 deaths).
While Telangana appears relatively safer with only 19% extreme weather days, it is also protected from most disasters due to its location and landlocked status.
The local extreme weather phenomena are responsible for a total of 23 victims and 4,573 hectares of crop loss. The zero losses reported in terms of animal deaths and damaged houses do not reflect the true picture as frequent floods resulted in both losses but were not recorded by the Ministry of Interior’s disaster management department from where the data was collected.
In 22 years, most of the human deaths recorded in Telangana were due to lightning and storms, which occurred on 22 days in the nine months of the study period. The remaining one death was attributed to heavy rains and flooding, again reflecting inaccuracies in data recording, as three people were washed away by rainwater in September alone, with only one body recovered in Valigonda. In April, another death occurred in Suraram due to heavy rain.
The number of days with extreme weather has been increasing in the last four years and in the case of Telangana it is more than 21%. In 2022, the state saw 42 days of extreme weather events, which quickly increased to 52 the following year and 50 the following year.
The study also analyzed maximum and minimum temperatures in state capitals during monsoons to understand how they disrupt the basic dynamics of the monsoon system and trigger erratic and extreme weather events from floods to droughts.
According to the report, Telangana experienced above-normal maximum temperatures on 34 of the 121 days studied between June and September 2025 and 66 below-normal maximum temperatures, with anomalies ranging between 4 and -7 degrees Celsius.
25 days were above normal minimum temperatures and 44 days below normal minimum temperatures, the shift was between 2 and -3 degrees Celsius.
Published – 20 Nov 2025 21:12 IST
