Punjab is a landlocked, largely flat alluvial state on the Indo-Gangetic plain, fed by the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers, with the Shivalik foothills rising along its northeastern edge (Hoshiarpur, Rupnagar). Its climate is continental: a short cold winter, an intense pre-monsoon heat build-up, a monsoon season shorter and lighter than most of India, and a dry, often smog-affected autumn. For live interactive rainfall, wind and satellite maps over Punjab, open VayuMet.
Punjab sits entirely on the northwestern Indo-Gangetic plain except for a narrow sub-Himalayan strip in the northeast, where the outer Shivalik range rises to a few hundred metres. The rest of the state is flat, fertile, canal- and tubewell-irrigated farmland with no major natural lake or coastline — its weather is driven almost entirely by continental air masses and the western-disturbance track, not by any maritime influence.
IMD's four-season framework applies cleanly here: a cold, foggy winter (December-February) dominated by western disturbances; a hot, dry pre-monsoon summer (March-June) with rising dust-storm and heatwave risk; a monsoon (July-September) that arrives later and delivers less rain than most of India, since Punjab is at the tail end of both the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal monsoon branches; and a dry post-monsoon (October-November) transition period increasingly marked by crop-residue-burning haze layering on top of early-season fog.
Punjab lies directly under the western-disturbance track that carries Mediterranean/Arabian Sea moisture eastward. IMD/IITM climatological studies put roughly 4-6 disturbances crossing northwest India per month during December-February; a subset bring measurable rain and snow to the adjoining hills, with the plains receiving lighter showers plus the cloud cover that sets up dense radiation/advection fog once the system clears.
Cold nights, high soil moisture from rabi irrigation and calm post-western-disturbance air combine to produce dense fog that regularly disrupts road, rail and flight schedules across the Punjab plains, most persistently around Amritsar and the Grand Trunk Road corridor.
Maximum temperatures climb through April and peak in May-June, regularly triggering IMD heatwave criteria (Tmax >= 45C or a large departure from normal) before monsoon onset. Late-afternoon dust storms and thunderstorms ('kal baisakhi'-type squalls, though less frequent here than in eastern India) can also cause crop and structural damage in this window.
Punjab's monsoon rain mostly comes from the Bay of Bengal branch travelling up the Gangetic plain; only the stronger monsoon depressions push moisture this far northwest, so Punjab's monsoon is shorter and considerably lighter than central or eastern India's, but an active depression can still produce a multi-day heavy-rain spell and river flooding.
The monsoon withdraws by late September, and October-November is normally dry. Large-scale paddy-stubble burning in this window, combined with falling temperatures and calm winds, regularly produces severe smog episodes across the state (documented in CPCB/Punjab Pollution Control Board seasonal air-quality reports) that compound with early fog.
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 Punjab's 23 districts, built from IMD's real 1991-2020 gridded rainfall/temperature normals and 1951-2025 daily archives (not a forecast) — see the method note beneath the table. For any single district's own numbers, which can differ noticeably from this state average, use the district climatology tool linked below.
| Season | Rainfall (mm) | Rain days | Mean Max / Min (°C) | Typical Hottest / Coldest (°C) | Sky (Sunny·Partly·Overcast days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Jan–Feb | 52.7 | 10.2 | 20.1 / 7.8 | 24.3 / 5.6 | 20.1·38.9·0.0 |
| Pre-Monsoon (Summer) Mar–May | 65.0 | 14.9 | 33.9 / 18.8 | 40.4 / 11.1 | 43.3·48.7·0.0 |
| Monsoon (SW) Jun–Sep | 487.5 | 56.4 | 35.3 / 25.9 | 40.7 / 21.8 | 67.6·54.4·0.0 |
| Post-Monsoon Oct–Dec | 22.7 | 6.3 | 26.7 / 12.4 | 34.2 / 5.3 | 68.9·23.1·0.0 |
State figures are a simple average across 23 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.
Monsoon (Jul-Sep). River flooding along the Sutlej, Beas and Ghaggar during an active monsoon spell or after upstream dam releases — the 2023 and 2019 floods affected large parts of Ferozepur, Fazilka and the Ghaggar belt.
Pre-monsoon (Apr-Jun). IMD-classified heatwave days are routine across the plains, most severe in the southwestern districts bordering Rajasthan (Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar).
Winter (Dec-Jan). Cold-wave conditions and multi-day dense-fog spells disrupt transport and can damage cold-sensitive rabi crops.
Pre-monsoon (Feb-Apr). Western-disturbance-linked hailstorms in late winter/early spring are a recurring threat to the standing wheat crop.
Post-monsoon (Oct-Nov). Stubble-burning smoke combined with temperature inversion and fog produces some of India's worst seasonal air quality episodes in this window.
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).