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In 2024, India experienced extreme weather events on 322 out of 366 days, surpassing the 318 days in 2023 and 314 days in 2022. This means that nearly 88 per cent of the year saw extreme weather in one or more parts of the country, up from 87 per cent in 2023 and 86 per cent in 2022, highlighting a worsening trend.
The analysis is based on data from the interactive atlas on extreme weather events in India managed by the Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down To Earth (DTE). The extreme events recorded during the year include — heat and cold waves, cyclones, lightning, heavy rain, floods and landslides.
While the country has been facing at least one disaster a day every year, 2024 saw the highest number of days with extreme weather and resultant loss and damage in the past three years shows the CSE-DTE database.
This rising trend has resulted in severe human and economic losses, with 3,472 fatalities in 2024, up from 3,287 in 2023 and 3,026 in 2022 — an increase of 15 per cent in three years.
Data from CSE-DTE’s atlas indicates a severe impact on agriculture, with extreme weather affecting at least 4.07 million hectares of cropped land in 2024 — an 84 per cent increase from 2.21 million hectares in 2023 and a 108 per cent rise from 1.96 million hectares in 2022.
Over the past three years, all regions in India have reported more extreme weather days. Central India saw the highest number of extreme weather days in 2024 — 253 days, an increase from 218 days in 2022 or an increase by 16 per cent.
Southern peninsula region saw 223 days of extreme weather days in 2024, which is an increase by 31 per cent since 2022 or in three years.
These have resulted in significant increases in crop loss, underscoring the high cost of climate change borne by farmers.
Madhya Pradesh in the central region experienced extreme weather on 185 days — the most in the country.
In the central region at least 2.36 million hectares of cropped area was affected, which accounts for 58 per cent of the country's affected cropped area due to extreme weather events.
Of the 2.36 million ha, around 2.03 million ha of cropped area was affected in Maharashtra alone, which saw 161 extreme days in the year, an increase from 126 extreme days in 2022. This means that the state accounted for almost half of the cropped area damaged in the country in the year 2024. The loss can be attributed to rising trend of the extreme weather days in the state.
The central region also recorded the most deaths (1,052), followed by the Southern Peninsula (871 deaths), the east and northeast (776 deaths) and the northwest region (773 deaths).