Shillong, Nov 8: Meghalaya recorded 91 days of extreme weather events during the first nine months of 2026, with 23 people losing their lives, according to a new assessment by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down To Earth.
The report, Climate India 2026: An Assessment of Extreme Weather Events, also documented damage to 127 hectares of cropped land, 38 houses and the deaths of 511 livestock in the state between January and September.
The findings underline the continuing vulnerability of Meghalaya, where heavy rainfall, floods and landslides can disrupt lives and livelihoods, particularly in the state’s hilly terrain.
The report’s state-wise analysis shows that Meghalaya recorded 60 days of extreme weather events in 2022, 58 in 2023, 93 in 2024 and 109 in 2025. The 91 days recorded in 2026 were lower than the previous year’s figure but remained substantially higher than those reported in 2022 and 2023.
The figures are part of a wider trend across the Northeast. The East and Northeast region experienced extreme weather events on 219 days during the first nine months of 2026, with 861 deaths and 0.34 million hectares of cropped land affected.
Assam recorded the highest number of extreme weather days in the region at 164, followed by Arunachal Pradesh with 94 and Meghalaya with 91.
The report’s regional analysis also points to a significant rise in the frequency of extreme weather events across East and Northeast India. The share of days affected by such events increased from 63 per cent in 2022 to 80 per cent in 2026.
The CSE assessment tracks extreme weather events including lightning and storms, heavy rainfall, floods, landslides, heatwaves and coldwaves.
For Meghalaya, the combination of intense rainfall and its mountainous landscape makes the impact of extreme weather particularly relevant to disaster preparedness.
The report notes that India experienced extreme weather events on 251 of the 273 days between January and September 2026, or 92 per cent of the period.
Heavy rainfall, floods and landslides were recorded somewhere in the country on all 122 days of the June-September monsoon season. Lightning and storms occurred on 106 days during the same period.
The assessment said the events during the monsoon claimed 2,383 lives nationally and affected 3.44 million hectares of cropped land.
While the report provides a state-wise account of extreme weather events and associated losses, it also highlights gaps in India’s disaster data system.
CSE and Down To Earth said the loss and damage figures are based on information from the India Meteorological Department, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ Disaster Management Division and media reports.
The report cautions that government data on losses is not comprehensive, as states do not provide information regularly. It also points out that crop losses during the pre-monsoon period are often not quantified in official assessments.
The authors have called for more comprehensive and consistent data on the impact of extreme weather events, including the number of people affected.
The report covers the period from January to September 2026 and compares extreme weather trends across India for the same nine-month period from 2022 to 2026.
