Uttar Pradesh is almost entirely Gangetic plain — flat, fertile and densely populated, split loosely into a drier, hotter west and a wetter, monsoon-dependent east, with a chronically drought-prone upland exception in the south (Bundelkhand). For live interactive rainfall, wind and satellite maps over Uttar Pradesh, open VayuMet.
Nearly the whole state lies on the Ganga-Yamuna plain, built up by centuries of Himalayan river sediment, with only a narrow Terai strip in the north (Pilibhit, Bahraich, Lakhimpur Kheri) touching the Himalayan foothills. In the south, the Bundelkhand upland breaks from the plain into a rockier, undulating, comparatively drier landscape shared with Madhya Pradesh.
Winter (December-February) is cold with some of India's most persistent dense fog. Pre-monsoon summer (March-June) is hot and dry, with the 'loo' hot wind a defining feature of central and western UP. The monsoon (June-September) is the state's main rain source, generally wetter in the east than the west, arriving via the Bay of Bengal branch travelling up the Gangetic plain. Post-monsoon (October-November) is a short, dry transition.
Uttar Pradesh sits in the heart of the Indo-Gangetic fog belt — cold nights, high moisture and calm winds regularly produce dense fog that disrupts road, rail and flight schedules for days at a stretch.
Western disturbances bring occasional winter rain to northern UP near the Terai and can trigger cold-wave conditions across the plains once they clear.
Central and western UP experience the 'loo' — a scorching, dry westerly wind that drives frequent heatwave conditions and carries real public-health risk if exposure isn't managed.
UP's monsoon rainfall is driven mainly by depressions and lows moving up from the Bay of Bengal along the Gangetic plain, which is also why eastern UP generally sees more reliable monsoon rain than the west.
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 Uttar Pradesh's 75 districts, built from IMD's real 1991-2020 gridded rainfall/temperature normals and 1951-2025 daily archives (not a forecast). East and west UP can differ meaningfully from 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 | 32.9 | 6.3 | 23.2 / 10.2 | 27.9 / 7.7 | 25.2·33.8·0.0 |
| Pre-Monsoon (Summer) Mar–May | 47.6 | 9.3 | 36.1 / 21.2 | 40.4 / 13.5 | 44.6·47.4·0.0 |
| Monsoon (SW) Jun–Sep | 737.6 | 71.4 | 34.5 / 26.3 | 40.2 / 23.6 | 20.3·95.6·6.0 |
| Post-Monsoon Oct–Dec | 39.0 | 6.0 | 28.2 / 14.8 | 34.2 / 8.0 | 66.5·25.5·0.0 |
State figures are a simple average across 75 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 (Jun-Sep). The Ghaghara, Rapti and Gandak rivers in the Terai/eastern belt regularly flood during the monsoon, driven partly by heavy rainfall over neighbouring Nepal.
Pre-monsoon (Apr-Jun). Central and western UP see frequent, sometimes prolonged heatwave spells linked to the loo.
Winter (Dec-Jan). Multi-day fog and cold-wave spells are a recurring transport and public-health hazard across the plains.
Monsoon-shortfall years. The Bundelkhand region in southern UP is chronically vulnerable to agricultural drought even in years the rest of the state receives normal rain.
Pre-monsoon & monsoon. UP records among the highest numbers of lightning-related fatalities of any Indian state each year.
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).