Gujarat has India's longest coastline and its geography splits cleanly into three climate zones: the arid salt-flat expanse of Kutch, the semi-arid Saurashtra peninsula, and the far wetter, more fertile mainland fed by the Sabarmati, Mahi, Narmada and Tapi rivers. Its coast is also one of the country's more cyclone-exposed stretches on the west side of India. For live interactive rainfall, wind and satellite maps over Gujarat, open VayuMet.
Kutch, in the northwest, is dominated by the Great and Little Rann — vast seasonal salt marshes that are among the most arid landscapes in India. Saurashtra, the peninsula south of Kutch, is semi-arid with a rocky, undulating interior and a long coastline. Mainland Gujarat, east and south, is the wettest and most agriculturally productive part of the state, watered by several major rivers before the southwest monsoon has to cross the Arabian Sea to reach it directly.
Winter (December-February) is mild and dry across the state. Summer (March-June) is hot, most intensely in interior Kutch and Saurashtra and north Gujarat. The southwest monsoon (June-September) reaches south Gujarat first and generally weakens moving north and west, leaving Kutch as the driest part of the state even in a normal year. Both the tail end of the pre-monsoon season (May) and the post-monsoon period (October-November) are peak windows for Arabian Sea cyclone activity affecting the Gujarat coast.
Gujarat's coast — Kandla, Porbandar, Veraval and the Saurashtra shoreline — has been struck by several significant cyclones historically, including the 1998 Kandla cyclone and Cyclone Tauktae in 2021, making these two transition windows the state's peak cyclone-risk periods.
The monsoon typically reaches south Gujarat first, around mid-June, then advances toward Saurashtra and Kutch with steadily decreasing intensity, which is why Kutch remains arid even in years the rest of India sees a normal monsoon.
Interior Saurashtra, Kutch and north Gujarat see the state's most intense pre-monsoon heat, while the coast is moderated somewhat by sea breeze.
Monsoon depressions that track unusually far west via Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan occasionally bring additional heavy rain to east Gujarat.
Frequencies cited from published IMD/IITM climatology where a source is named inline; day-count figures in the table below are computed directly from the 1951–2025 IMD daily archive.
The table below is a state-wide average across Gujarat's 33 districts, built from IMD's real 1991-2020 gridded rainfall/temperature normals and 1951-2025 daily archives (not a forecast). Kutch is considerably drier and mainland south Gujarat considerably wetter than this average — use the district climatology tool linked below for any single district's own figures.
| Season | Rainfall (mm) | Rain days | Mean Max / Min (°C) | Typical Hottest / Coldest (°C) | Sky (Sunny·Partly·Overcast days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Jan–Feb | 3.2 | 0.6 | 29.5 / 14.2 | 33.2 / 12.3 | 37.8·21.2·0.0 |
| Pre-Monsoon (Summer) Mar–May | 9.0 | 1.8 | 37.3 / 23.3 | 39.5 / 17.6 | 51.8·40.2·0.0 |
| Monsoon (SW) Jun–Sep | 855.4 | 67.8 | 33.2 / 25.7 | 38.7 / 24.2 | 4.2·86.5·31.3 |
| Post-Monsoon Oct–Dec | 27.8 | 5.1 | 32.3 / 18.4 | 35.4 / 12.6 | 44.5·47.3·0.2 |
State figures are a simple average across 33 member districts (IMD Pune 1991–2020 normal; day-count and sky figures from real 1951–2025 daily archives — see District Climatology tool for any single district's own numbers, which can differ substantially from this state average).
Computed directly from the real IMD 1951–2025 daily gridded archive — not a forecast, and not the same as a single-station record. IMD's gridded temperature is 1°×1° (~111 km/cell) and rainfall is 0.25°×0.25° (~25 km/cell); both are spatial analyses of many station observations; a famous single-station record (e.g. a specific town's all-time hottest day) will typically read higher than the grid-cell value shown here, since one station reading isn't smoothed over a ~25–111 km box. "Place" is the nearest district to the grid cell where the extreme occurred, not necessarily the exact spot.
Pre-monsoon (May) & post-monsoon (Oct-Nov). The Gujarat coast, including Kandla and the Saurashtra shoreline, faces recurring direct and indirect impact from Arabian Sea cyclones.
Structural, Kutch & Saurashtra. Kutch and much of Saurashtra are chronically water-scarce, with agriculture and drinking-water supply highly sensitive to monsoon performance.
Monsoon (Jun-Sep). South Gujarat's rivers, particularly the Tapi, have caused severe urban flooding in Surat during unusually heavy monsoon spells.
Pre-monsoon (Apr-Jun). Interior Kutch, Saurashtra and north Gujarat see recurring heatwave conditions ahead of monsoon onset.
Click a district on the District Climatology tool or search it on the 10-day forecast page for its own normals — the grid below is the full current list (India's Local Government Directory codes, cross-checked against the latest state reorganisation).