Meghalaya recorded its hottest year since 1901 in 2025, with the state’s annual mean temperature reaching 20.77°C, according to the India Meteorological Department’s latest climate assessment. The average was 0.96°C above the 1991–2020 long-period average, marking a new temperature extreme for one of India’s wettest states.
The findings are contained in the IMD’s ‘Statement on Climate for Meghalaya: 2025’, which examined the state’s monthly, seasonal and annual temperature, rainfall and extreme weather events. The assessment used the 1991–2020 period as its baseline for comparison.
The report identified a warming trend of 0.73°C per 100 years between 1901 and 2025. It also found that maximum temperatures have been rising faster than minimum temperatures. The five warmest years recorded for Meghalaya were 2025, 2023, 2024, 2021 and 2022, placing four of the state’s five hottest years within the past five years.
The annual minimum temperature anomaly in 2025 was 0.78°C above normal, the highest recorded since 1901. The maximum temperature anomaly was 1.13°C above normal, ranking as the third warmest in the historical record. Both maximum and minimum temperatures remained significantly above normal for most of the year, except in May and August.
Seasonal patterns showed that the warming was not confined to one part of the year. During the monsoon, the maximum temperature anomaly reached 1.2°C, the highest for the season since 1901. Winter minimum temperatures were 1.1°C above normal, making it the third warmest winter on record. Minimum temperature anomalies during the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons were 0.8°C and 0.7°C above normal, respectively, ranking both seasons as the second warmest since 1901.
For Meghalaya’s towns and expanding built-up areas, the findings place greater importance on how public infrastructure and services respond to changing temperature conditions. A warmer baseline can affect buildings, roads, water systems and public spaces, although the supplied IMD assessment does not quantify those specific impacts. The report establishes the temperature trend and the scale of the 2025 anomaly, while the implications for local planning would require separate assessment.
The data also challenges the assumption that high rainfall alone protects a region from climate stress. Meghalaya’s climate is associated with abundant precipitation, but the IMD record shows that rainfall characteristics and temperature conditions need to be assessed separately when governments plan for resilience.
The assessment provides a long-term reference for state authorities by comparing current conditions with observations extending back to 1901. It also gives planners a basis for tracking whether the recent concentration of record-warm years continues. The IMD’s next assessments will determine how the 2025 record fits into subsequent temperature and extreme-weather trends.
