India’s so-called “second summer” is returning as large parts of the country record temperatures 1–4°C above normal after the southwest monsoon’s withdrawal. The immediate explanation is meteorological: clearer skies, reduced rainfall, dry winds and an anti-cyclonic circulation over Gujarat and adjoining areas. But the pattern also exposes a recurring challenge for cities whose planning calendars still treat the end of the monsoon as the end of the year’s heat stress.
The India Meteorological Department’s temperature maps for October 1–7 showed above-normal maximum temperatures across Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and adjoining regions. Mean temperatures were also above normal in central, western and southern India, although the departures were more moderate, at around 1–2°C. The most pronounced departures were recorded in daytime temperatures, which rose by 1–4°C in several regions.
The figures are significant not simply because some locations crossed familiar high-temperature thresholds. They show that the heat was geographically widespread and persisted across more than a few isolated afternoons. That distinction matters for urban areas. A short-lived hot day is a weather event; a broader period of elevated daytime and nighttime temperatures places greater pressure on the daily functioning of homes, workplaces, transport systems and public spaces. The supplied evidence does not quantify those impacts, but it establishes the atmospheric conditions that can produce them.
Delhi provides one of the clearest signals. The capital recorded a maximum temperature of 37.1°C on October 3. According to the experts cited in the report, this was only the second time in about a decade that Delhi had reached 37°C during this period. The heat was not limited to afternoons: Safdarjung recorded a minimum of 24.1°C, 3.1°C above normal, while Lodhi Road recorded 23.4°C, 3.4°C above normal.
Those nighttime figures are important because they indicate that the city was not cooling to its usual extent after sunset. The report does not establish the causes of the warmer nights in Delhi beyond recording the departures, and it does not provide a city-level assessment of health, electricity or water demand. It does, however, show that the event cannot be understood only through the day’s maximum temperature. Urban heat is also shaped by how long temperatures remain elevated and whether buildings and streets can release accumulated heat overnight.
The same pattern was visible across western India. Ahmedabad reached 37.6°C, 1.6°C above normal, while Gandhinagar recorded 36.5°C, 1.5°C above normal. In coastal Maharashtra, Alibaug recorded 35°C, 2.6°C above normal, and Mumbai’s Santacruz reached 37.6°C, 4.5°C above normal. In Delhi-NCR, Safdarjung recorded 35.7°C, 1.5°C above normal, and Lodhi Road reached 35°C, 2°C above normal.
These locations do not share the same climate or urban form. Mumbai’s coastal setting differs sharply from the dry interiors of Rajasthan, while Delhi’s continental conditions differ from those of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Yet the simultaneous rise across these regions indicates that the event is linked to a larger seasonal transition rather than a single city-level anomaly.
IMD scientist Naresh Kumar attributed the above-normal temperatures to an anti-cyclonic circulation over Gujarat and adjoining areas, together with winds from the Arabian Sea. He said that northwesterly winds would normally bring cooler air to north India, but that winds from the Arabian Sea contributed to the higher temperatures during this period. The circulation, he added, was also responsible for elevated temperatures in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
This explanation is institutionally important because it separates the immediate weather mechanism from broader climate claims. The report does not present the current spell as proof of one specific long-term climate trend. Instead, it identifies the atmospheric conditions behind the present episode. Kumar said temperatures were unlikely to vary substantially over the next few days and were expected to remain broadly at similar levels.
Skymet Weather president GP Sharma described the pattern as part of the rapid transition that follows the retreat of the southwest monsoon. As cloud cover and rainfall reduce, dry westerly winds begin to dominate and daytime heating becomes stronger. Sharma said this transition can bring a renewed period of hot and dry conditions over northwest and western India.
The timing of the transition is central to understanding the “second summer” phenomenon. The monsoon had withdrawn from Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan by late September and subsequently progressed across other regions. According to Sharma, Maharashtra and Goa were completely dry, while withdrawal had also covered parts of north Telangana and most of Chhattisgarh. The report says the monsoon withdrew slightly earlier than usual this year and moved rapidly across the country in the last few days.
For urban administrations, this creates a planning problem at the boundary between seasons. Municipal systems often treat October as a period of recovery from monsoon disruption: roads are repaired, construction activity resumes and public agencies move towards the cooler months. The weather evidence in this report suggests that the post-monsoon period can instead involve a renewed heat-management requirement, particularly in western and central India. That conclusion is an institutional implication of the recorded temperatures and forecast, not a claim that every city has experienced the same level of risk.
The geographical spread also complicates the idea that heat preparedness can be limited to the traditional summer months. Rajasthan and Gujarat recorded some of the strongest daytime increases. Churu, Pilani and Sri Ganganagar approached 40°C, while Jaisalmer, Barmer, Phalodi and Bikaner recorded between 38°C and 39°C, according to Skymet. Pilani reached 39.7°C, while Barmer, Chittorgarh and Jaisalmer recorded 38.6°C, 38.2°C and 38.5°C respectively.
Sharma said temperatures around 40°C were not unusual in parts of Gujarat and western Rajasthan during this phase of the year. He cited Naliya and Bhuj in Kutch, along with Jaisalmer and Barmer in Rajasthan, as locations that can reach around 40°C after the monsoon withdraws. This provides a historical and regional qualification: the occurrence of high temperatures in these areas is not itself unprecedented. What is notable in the current report is the combination of elevated readings across multiple regions and the unusually high departure recorded in some urban locations.
The report also places India’s heat in a wider regional setting. Temperatures in western Pakistan and adjoining Iran were already in the 42–43°C range, while parts of central Pakistan had crossed 40°C. That comparison indicates that the post-monsoon heat is occurring within a broader regional pattern of hot and dry conditions, although the supplied evidence does not establish a single common cause across all affected areas.
The question of El Niño further demonstrates why attribution requires caution. Sharma said there was no clear evidence of a direct link between El Niño and the current heat. While El Niño can coincide with an early monsoon withdrawal, he said historical data had not established a consistent relationship between the two. This limits the case for explaining the present episode through a single climate driver.
The stronger conclusion is narrower but more useful for cities: the withdrawal of the monsoon does not automatically mean the end of heat-related pressure. Clear skies, lower rainfall, changing winds and warmer-than-normal nights can create a second period of thermal stress before winter conditions arrive. The report’s evidence is primarily meteorological, so it cannot by itself measure effects on households, workers, public transport, electricity demand or water systems. Those would require separate city-level data.
What it does establish is a seasonal signal that urban institutions need to track more closely. IMD forecast hot and humid conditions over Konkan and Goa from October 8–10, while Kumar expected broadly similar temperatures over the next few days. The next test will be whether the above-normal conditions remain geographically widespread and whether cities record further departures from normal, particularly in minimum temperatures. The immediate evidence therefore points to a post-monsoon heat episode, while leaving its eventual duration and city-specific consequences to be established by subsequent observations.
