Meghalaya Weather Forecast & Climate Summary
Meghalaya is home to Mawsynram and Cherrapunji (Sohra), consistently cited among the wettest inhabited places on Earth — a product of the plateau's abrupt southern escarpment funnelling Bay of Bengal monsoon moisture upward with almost nowhere else to go. For live interactive rainfall, wind and satellite maps over Meghalaya, open VayuMet.
Geography & Seasonal Cycle
The Meghalaya plateau — comprising the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo hills — rises abruptly from the plains of Bangladesh to its south. That abruptness is the key to the state's extreme rainfall: monsoon moisture moving north from the Bay of Bengal is forced almost vertically upward against the escarpment, wringing out enormous rainfall on the southern-facing slopes before the air ever reaches the plateau's northern, interior side.
The monsoon (June-September, though substantial pre-monsoon rain often begins in April-May) is overwhelming on the southern escarpment around Mawsynram and Sohra, while the plateau's northern and interior areas, only tens of kilometres away, receive a small fraction of that total. Winter is cool and comparatively dry and pleasant across the plateau.
Weather Systems by Season
Mawsynram and Cherrapunji (Sohra) are regularly cited among the wettest inhabited places on the planet, a direct result of the plateau's abrupt rise funnelling Bay of Bengal moisture into a narrow uplift zone.
The plateau's northern and interior side lies in a comparatively dry rain shadow, despite being only a short distance from some of the wettest slopes in the world.
Pre-monsoon convective storms bring damaging hail and wind across the plateau.
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.
Seasonal Weather Data
The table below is a state-wide average across Meghalaya's 12 districts, built from IMD's real 1991-2020 gridded rainfall/temperature normals and 1951-2025 daily archives (not a forecast). Given the extraordinary contrast between the wet southern escarpment and the drier plateau interior, this average understates just how extreme conditions get around Mawsynram and Sohra — 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 | 29.3 | 9.0 | 22.4 / 11.5 | 25.3 / 9.7 | 36.7·22.3·0.0 |
| Pre-Monsoon (Summer) Mar–May | 590.2 | 59.2 | 28.1 / 18.9 | 29.6 / 14.3 | 19.3·68.8·3.8 |
| Monsoon (SW) Jun–Sep | 1500.9 | 112.1 | 29.3 / 23.2 | 30.5 / 21.8 | 0.2·89.5·32.2 |
| Post-Monsoon Oct–Dec | 174.6 | 24.2 | 25.6 / 16.4 | 29.4 / 10.4 | 43.1·48.8·0.1 |
State figures are a simple average across 12 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).
Recorded Extremes (IMD 1951–2025 Gridded Data)
- Highest maximum temperature recorded (South Garo Hills): 37.5°C — 25 May 2024
- Lowest minimum temperature recorded (South Garo Hills): 4.1°C — 10 Jan 2013
- Highest 24-hour rainfall recorded (South West Khasi Hills): 979 mm — 17 Jun 2022
- Highest monthly rainfall recorded (East Khasi Hills): 6881 mm — Jul 1984
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.
Risk Profile
Monsoon (Apr-Sep). The extreme rainfall on the steep southern escarpment makes flash floods and landslides a routine hazard there, frequently disrupting road connectivity.
Pre-monsoon (Mar-May). Severe pre-monsoon thunderstorms can bring damaging hail across the plateau.
Monsoon (Apr-Sep). Landslide-triggered road closures are a routine consequence of the monsoon in the hill districts.
Meghalaya Weather Highlights
- Mawsynram and Cherrapunji (Sohra) are consistently cited among the wettest inhabited places on Earth, a product of the plateau's abrupt escarpment funnelling monsoon moisture upward.
- The same plateau's northern and interior side, only tens of kilometres away, is comparatively dry — one of the sharpest rainfall contrasts found anywhere in the world over such a short distance.
- Meghalaya's name, meaning 'abode of clouds', reflects just how central this extreme rainfall pattern is to the state's identity.
All 12 Districts
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).