India - weather in October

October is an autumn month in the Northern Hemisphere. In India, a large country crossed by the Tropic of Cancer in the center-north, it is generally a hot, dry month in the north-west, with decreasing rainfall in the center and north-east, and increasing in the south-east.
October is the month in which the summer monsoon, which blew from the south-west and brought rain, retreats in much of the territory, and is replaced by the drier north-east monsoon. In September, the monsoon had already retreated in the northwest.
Instead, in the south-east, the new monsoon, also called the retreating monsoon, is loaded with humidity as it passes over the Bay of Bengal, and brings abundant rainfall. Therefore, while in most of India the dry season begins in October, in the south-east, the rainiest period of the year begins, as can be seen in the following map.



As a result, the rains are very rare in the northwest (see Amritsar, New Delhi, Jodhpur) and in the west (see Gujarat, Mumbai), they are still abundant at first but then they cease during the month in the north-east (see Kolkata, North Lakhimpur), while they increase in Tamil Nadu, in the south-east, which was not affected by the summer monsoon (see Chennai). Even in Kerala, in the far south-west, rainfall is abundant. On the islands, both those of the south-west (Laccadive, see Minicoy), and those of the south-east (Nicobar and Andaman, see Port Blair), the rains remain abundant.

In the north-west, the night temperature decreases, but during the day, with the return of good weather, it is still high, and on the hottest days it can still reach 40 °C (104 °F).
In the southern mountains (see Ooty or Udhagamandalam), instead, the climate is quite cool.

In October, tropical cyclones can form, affecting both coasts, that of the Arabian Sea to the west and that of the Bay of Bengal to the east. This is one of the two periods when cyclones are more frequent and intense (the other was at the onset of the summer monsoon). Normally, southern India is hit by cyclones only from mid-October to December, while the extreme south (Kerala, Tamil Nadu) is directly affected only in November and December.

The sea is warm enough to swim in anywhere.

The following tables show the climate averages in the month of October in India in a selection of locations.

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Monthly climate averages - October

(from north to south)
















See also: India, the weather in September - November
The climate of India