Extreme Weather Becoming India's New Normal? As 2025 Begins With Deadly Storms, Here's What Trends Suggest
The year 2024 was an eye-opener on climate change, marked by record-breaking heat waves, devastating storms, and widespread loss of life and property. Now, just a few months into 2025, and the start is already hinting at yet another turbulent year ahead with early signs of extreme weather conditions already being witnessed across the country.
From fatal lightning strikes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to simultaneous heatwaves, hailstorms, and unseasonal rains across the country, the climate crisis seems to be deepening further.
Erratic Weather Claims Lives In 2025
Experts warn that India may be headed for another year of climate-induced mayhem and that the "new normal" of extreme weather could have increasingly devastating social and economic consequences unless urgent climate resilience and mitigation strategies are implemented.
At least 47 people were killed in lightning strikes and rain-related incidents across Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on April 10, highlighting the intensifying pattern of extreme and unpredictable weather across India.
Bihar reported 25 deaths due to storms on Thursday, while another 13 died from lightning strikes in four districts of the state just a day earlier on April 9.
The deaths come amid a broader wave of unusual weather conditions in the country. On April 10, heat wave to severe heat wave conditions were reported in most parts of Rajasthan and parts of Saurashtra, Kutch, Gujarat, South Haryana, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh. Warm night conditions prevailed in isolated areas of Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Maharashtra, and Marathwada.
Meanwhile, East Uttar Pradesh, South Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya recorded hailstorms and isolated areas of Bihar received heavy to very heavy rainfall. Heavy rainfall was also reported in parts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim.
Thunderstorms accompanied by squally or gusty winds affected several regions, including Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, and several northeastern and southern states, including Kerala and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
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2024 Witnessed Widespread Loss Due To Extreme Weather
The spate of deadly climatic conditions is part of an extreme weather trend in the country, which saw record-setting extremes in 2024. Last year was the warmest in the country since recordkeeping began in 1901, according to official data. The extreme weather caused 3,207 deaths, affected 3.2 million hectares of crops, destroyed more than 235,000 houses, and killed over 9,000 livestock.
While heatwaves affected 54 of the 92 summer days, contributing to 459 deaths, lightning and thunderstorms claimed 1,374 lives. Floods and heavy rainfall led to 1,287 fatalities, and other weather-related incidents, including cyclones (70) and coldwaves (7), increased the total number of deaths to over 3,200.
From 2010 to 2024, India experienced 10 of its 15 warmest years on record. The decade from 2015 to 2024 is now considered the warmest in the country’s recorded history.
Extreme weather events were documented on 322 days in 2024, which is 88 percent of the year. This follows similar trends in previous years, with similar events recorded on 318 days in 2023 and 314 days in 2022.
Over the past three decades, from 1993 to 2022, extreme weather has claimed at least 80,000 lives and caused an estimated $180 billion (Rs. 16 lakh crore) in economic losses, according to Germanwatch, a Germany-based non-profit organization. The report ranked India as the sixth most affected country globally.
The World Bank has warned that by 2030, India could account for 34 million of the projected 80 million global job losses linked to productivity declines caused by heat stress.
As extreme weather events continue to happen in the country, experts warn that the pattern may not be temporary, suggesting that "extreme" may now be India's new climate norm.
(With inputs from Trithesh Nandan.)
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