The year 2024 was India’s warmest year on record, the India Meteorological Department said in its Annual Climate Summary on Wednesday.

“The annual mean land surface air temperature averaged over India during 2024 was +0.65°C above the long-term average [1991-2020 period],” the report said. “This marked the warmest year since nationwide records began in 1901.”

Extreme weather events, including heavy rainfall, floods, landslides, heat waves and cold waves, killed more than 3,200 persons in 2024.

Of these, at least 1,280 deaths were due to lightning and thunderstorms, the report initially claimed. However, a table found later in the document indicated that the number may be as high as 1,374 deaths due to lightning and thunderstorms.

Floods and heavy rains caused between 1,280 to 1,287 deaths in 2024.

Bihar saw the most deaths due to lightning strikes, while Kerala reported the most casualties from floods and heavy rains. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were also listed among the top states reporting deaths due to extreme weather.

The mean land surface air temperature is the average temperature of the air at a specific location, measured 1 to 2 metres above the ground. The previous highest temperature was observed in 2016.

The report also noted that the annual rainfall in the country in 2024 was 104% of its long period average, which is the mean rainfall over the last 50 years.

“The monsoon season rainfall over the country as a whole was 108% of its LPA [long period average value],” it added. The southwest monsoon season generally begins in June and starts to retreat by September.

Several Indian cities broke temperature records in 2024. Rajasthan’s Churu saw temperatures rising up to 50.5 degrees Celsius, breaking its previous record of 49.9 degrees Celsius in 1998. Ganganagar recorded a maximum temperature of 49.4 degrees Celsius, last recorded there in 1944. Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi saw a maximum temperature of 47.8 degrees Celsius, breaking its previous record of 46.8 degrees Celsius in 1998.

Rainfall extremes also set new records. On July 19, Porbandar in Gujarat recorded 485.8 mm of rain in a single day. Porbandar’s previous record was 444.3 mm of rain in a single day in 2009.

Puducherry recorded 483.7 mm of rainfall in a single day, breaking its past record of 186.7 mm in 1998. Dwarka, which saw 418.6 mm of rain in a single day also broke its previous record of 355.8 mm in 1998.

“In 2024, four cyclonic storms formed over the North Indian Ocean,” the report noted. “Of these, two were severe cyclonic storms [Remal and Dana], and two were cyclonic storms [Asna and Fengal].”

Cyclone Remal killed 51 persons across Mizoram, West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur. Cyclone Dana killed four persons in West Bengal while Cyclone Fengal killed 15 people in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.