The 2025 southwest monsoon season officially ended on September 30 with above normal rainfall. However, of the total 727 districts, 20 per cent observed rain deficit during this period.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) data from June 1, 2025, to September 30, 2025, showed that the monsoon ended with eight per cent above normal rainfall. Only four states — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, and Bihar — received deficient rainfall in terms of the average rain in the period. However, the rain distribution was skewed and uneven at the district level.
While many urban cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Dehradun, among several other regions received ‘excess rainfall’ between 20 and 40 per cent, there were at least 146 districts in the country with ‘deficient’ or ‘large deficient’ rainfall.
According to the IMD, deficient rainfall happens when actual rainfall has a deficit between 20 per cent and 59 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA), while large deficient rainfall signifies rainfall less than 60 to 99 per cent of the LPA. These classifications are based on the percentage departure from the normal rainfall recorded for a specific period or region.
Of the total 727 districts, for which data was available with the IMD, 135 districts were in the ‘deficient’ category and 11 were in the ‘large deficient’ category, till September 30.
Deoria district in Uttar Pradesh (UP) had a deficit of 87 per cent, the highest departure from normal rainfall, among all districts. However, UP overall received ‘normal’ rainfall.
Deoria was followed by West Jaintia Hills and South West Garo Hills districts in Meghalaya which recorded 75 per cent and 73 per cent rainfall deficit respectively. In fact, the usually rain-rich state of Meghalaya had the highest deficit rainfall of 42 per cent.
Apart from Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh recorded a 41 per cent deficit in rainfall this year, with 11 of its 16 districts in either the deficient or large deficient rainfall category.
On the other hand, the cold desert region of Ladakh received a whopping 342 per cent excess rainfall than normal, between June 1 and September 30. In fact, along with Ladakh, the only other state/Union Territory which received ‘large excess’ rainfall (more than 60 per cent of normal) was the semi-arid state of Rajasthan (63 per cent more rains than normal).