India Records Its Driest Southwest Monsoon in More Than a Decade

India ended the 2026 southwest monsoon season with 759.4 mm of rainfall against a long-period average of 868.6 mm, about 12.6% below normal and roughly 87.4% of the long-period average. It was the country’s driest monsoon since 2015 and among the driest of the twenty-first century, with El Niño conditions contributing to the deficit. The weak and uneven rains affected agriculture, water availability and farm demand even as some regions experienced destructive short-duration floods.