Pune gets just 1.7 mm rain in October, lowest in 11 years

The returning monsoon turned its back on Pune this October. The Shivajinagar observatory area recorded just 1.7 mm of rain through the entire month, the lowest October figure in the past eleven years.

Rain fell on only two days in the month. The rest of the days stayed dry, so temperatures felt higher in the city.

Pune usually gets light to moderate rain from the returning monsoon in October. This time, rain was missing for almost the whole month. According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data, 1.4 mm fell on October 1 and 0.3 mm on October 30. Apart from these two days, no rain was reported all month. As a result, the city and surrounding areas stayed dry for most of the time.

Past figures show October rainfall has varied widely from year to year. The highest was 313.3 mm in 2020. In 2022 it was 303.5 mm, and in 2019 it was 235 mm. In 2023, by contrast, only 18.6 mm fell, the lowest in this period until now. This year's 1.7 mm broke that earlier record low.

In the other years, October rainfall was 76.7 mm in 2015, 80.4 mm in 2016, 180.9 mm in 2017, 36.1 mm in 2018, 140.2 mm in 2021, 61.2 mm in 2024 and 67.3 mm in 2025.

Dr S. D. Sanap, a scientist at IMD Pune, said: "The returning monsoon did not arrive as expected in October, so the weather stayed dry in most parts of the state. With no rain, soil moisture has dropped, and both the daytime maximum and night-time minimum temperatures were recorded above average. In some parts of the Konkan coastal belt in particular, heatwave-like conditions developed."