Pune experienced its driest October since 2014, with the IMD’s Shivajinagar station registering just 1.7 mm of rainfall alongside unusually high average temperatures of 34.66°C.On October 31, a number of weather stations in Pune district reported rainfall of different intensities over a 24-hour period. This included 67 mm in Bhor and 45.5 mm in Shirur to 18 mm in Magarpatta, 17 mm in Nimgiri and 7 mm in Pashan. In Shivajinagar, the main weather station of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Pune, the rain guages remained dry – marking a fitting end to a month with below-normal rain at the weather station.“In October 2026, only 1.7 mm was recorded in Shivajinagar. This is the lowest October rainfall since 2014,” said an expert from Vagaries of the Weather, a weather monitoring organisation. He added that the near absence of rain, added to unusually high temperatures, had turned October particularly uncomfortable.According to IMD data, the rainfall received in Shivajinagar in previous October months, ranged from 18.6 mm in 2023 to 61.2 mm in 2024 and 67.3 mm in 2025. There was 313 mm of rain in 2020 and 235 mm the year before.“The first reason for this year’s lack of rain was the early withdrawal of the southwest monsoon. While Pune’s normal withdrawal date is around October 10, this year the monsoon withdrew on October 3. This occured along with the absence of thunderstorms that typically bring rain to Pune during the post-monsoon period,” he said.From mid-September, Pune receives rainfall in the form of localised thunderstorms, often triggered by weather systems developing over the Bay of Bengal or discontinuities in wind patterns along the west coast and over Marathwada and Madhya Maharashtra.“This year, no strong weather system developed to trigger such activity. Another important factor was the early formation of an anticyclone, a high-pressure system that generally develops around Gujarat after mid-October. Its influence kept Maharashtra under predominantly dry conditions, with little cloud cover,” said the expert.This year, the expected movement of moisture from the Bay of Bengal towards Maharashtra was also largely absent. “Although the Northeast Monsoon established itself over Tamil Nadu, the easterly trough that normally transports moisture inland did not extend sufficiently northwards to benefit Maharashtra. Nor did any significant low-pressure system develop over the Arabian Sea to bring moisture towards Madhya Maharashtra and Marathwada,” he said.Story continues below this adThe expert cautioned against attributing the lack of rain to the El Nino, pointing out that, in 2015, another El Nino year, there was Pune had received 76.7 mm of rainfall in October. “In September 2015, Shivajinagar recorded 173 mm of rainfall, compared to 64.1 mm this September,” he said.October 2026 has been among the highest as well, averaging 34.66 degrees Celsius. In comparison, the average maximum temperature in 2025 was 31.3 degrees Celsius. Since 2014, the highest average maximum temperature for October has been 33.2 degrees Celsius in 2018. On October 31, in a forecast issued for November 2026, IMD said that it is likely that above-normal maximum and minimum temperatures will prevail over most parts of the country.Dipanita Nath is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Indian Express, based in Pune. She is a versatile ... Read More Tags:pune