26 Cities Record Above-Normal Maximum Temperatures: Heat, Monsoon & What India Needs to Watch

The climatic condition in India has become more extreme in nature than a fixed climatic pattern. While one city is seeing severe heat, stress on water resources, and increased cooling demand, another part of the country is facing flooding along with landslides and water logging situations. No longer an occasional exception, this is now the norm.

According to a Daily Heat Tracker report, released on July 28, 2026, 26 Indian cities experienced maximum temperature above the normal while Chennai had the maximum temperature of 38.8°C and minimum temperature of 29.2°C. During the same time, there was also an intense monsoon activity over various regions of India together.

This changing climate reality is aligned with our emphasis at Ekam Eco Solutions and Zerodor on Sustainable Water Management, Water Efficient Sanitation and environmentally responsible facilities.

Important data note: The list of 26 cities with above-normal maximum temperatures is not available in the accessible version of the July 28 report, but can be found in the confidential version. Instead, the city table below draws on a separately published data set covering 50 cities that was updated on April 27, 2026, to give a snapshot of extreme heat in India, using only 26 cities. Do not consider the two data sets as being the same event. 

Delhi-NCR Faces Waterlogging and Traffic Chaos

The same weather system that exemplifies the complexities of India's relationship with heat can also trigger intense and disruptive rainfall in the same season – and sometimes even in the same week. Heavy rain occurred on July 28 with a lot of water-logging in the city's main roads and streets and heavy traffic congestion on the roads which affected the daily commuters and commercial activities in the city. During this time, the India Meteorological Department had issued a red alert for thunderstorms, lightning and rain indicating the severity of the situation that can occur within a short span of time.

This situation is significant and is an important reminder that one can't plan for water resilience without planning for heat resilience. Drainage systems should be in place that are truly capable of managing a high intensity rain event, and have active water conservation measures in place in hot, dry times of the year. In the case of commercial buildings, this implies that stormwater, responsible water use, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, and rainwater harvesting are all part of the same solution, not independent programs for distinct teams to manage.

Uttarakhand Battles Landslides Amid Relentless Downpour

Climate risk is fundamentally distinct in mountain areas, as are planning responses. Slopes can get saturated quickly during heavy monsoon, and surface runoff can increase dramatically, resulting in potentially hazardous landslides or flash flooding of infrastructure and human life, typically in unpredictable and unpredictable ways.

For buildings and infrastructure in hilly areas, water management will thus be much more than just dropping daily consumption reading. These are all critical elements of a resilient drainage design that must all be in place to allow for a truly resilient approach. An environmentally friendly building in a mountain area should include measures to capture and retain water wherever feasible, and to divert excess water from structures and slopes that are not able to absorb and withstand them. 

Flood Situation Remains Serious in the Northeast

The intensity of rainfall coupled with the topography of Northeastern India is a regular occurrence that can cause floods even with good infrastructure in place.The interaction of intensity of rainfall and topography is a constant feature of Northeastern India, which can cause flooding even with good infrastructure in place. Heavy and prolonged rainfall can cause the rivers to rise quickly and inundate low-lying areas, which in turn can impact many communities, farms, roads, and businesses at once.

The message to urban planners and building designers in a country, which really requires water, is clear as a bell: don't blame rainfall! Unmanaged runoff is the real problem. Cities require comprehensive systems that can capture, slow, store, use and safely release water within the constraints of the time. This is especially when the rainfall pattern is becoming more intense and unpredictable from region to region and water-sensitive urban design becomes more relevant and urgent. 

Heavy Rainfall Forecast for Several States

The distribution of rainfall during the 2026 monsoon has been largely uneven throughout India. As of July 28, the cumulative rainfall for all-India was 352.9 mm, which was 15.76% below normal of 418.9 mm as per data from the Monsoon OnLine of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology. Meanwhile there has been very heavy rainfall in some areas resulting in localized damage.

This is not even distribution and presents a true paradox, in that in one flood prone area, a country may have serious flooding but may have legitimate water scarcity or cumulative rainfall deficits in another in the same week, making national level statistics misleading for local level planning purposes. This is the reason why a mere mention that India receives a good amount of rainfall annually is not sufficient for water planning. The critical and practical challenge is to collect the water when and where it can be collected, to store it in an effective manner, to distribute it where it is required, and to use every litre collected effectively before it is discharged.

Temperature Variations Continue Despite Active Monsoon

The regions through which monsoon rainfall passes are not automatically protected from the heat risk, nor is this fact well understood in the public discourse on seasonal weather. When the rainfall totals are comparable between the regions, the unique nature of local temperatures can be due to cloud cover, timing of the rain, humidity in the atmosphere, the thermal properties of city surfaces, and the local wind.

The coastal cities could be warm and really humid even when it rains, and the inland regions could be cold with a fast and significant change in temperature when the weather systems pass. Extreme heat is a combination of high temperature and certain environmental factors that from their own effects amplify human and ecological risks, are harmful to built structures and infrastructure, and negatively impact livelihoods.

That's why a heat tracker shouldn't just be a list of the hottest places on a particular day. It is a useful tool to inform thinking about possible areas of overlap and synergies between heat exposure, increasing water demand, and infrastructure stress that will need coordinated planning actions. 

Authorities Advise Public to Remain Vigilant

When the information is used to clearly and immediately guide a person, organization, or facility manager to take action, the alert is most useful. While in hot weather conditions, people should avoid unnecessary outdoor activity in the heat of the day, stay well hydrated throughout the day and follow official alerts from the India Meteorological Department, and take appropriate actions when the weather changes.

Organisations should review working hour arrangements for outdoor and semi-outdoor workers to ensure they are working within a safe time frame, provide drinking water at suitable and appropriate locations in all work areas, ensure that ventilation and cooling systems are operating at 100% capacity prior to onset of extreme conditions, and take precautions to ensure that worker groups at increased risk of developing heat stress will have their well-being monitored. Available weather forecast data can also be used to modify irrigation schedules for landscaping during rainy seasons, slow down irrigation water flow through plumbing that can lead to higher associated costs during peak demand periods, and to examine patterns of irrigation water use to detect any unusual increase that could alert to equipment failures or behavioral inefficiencies.

Understanding the Dataset

A useful heat dataset may not just focus on the maximum T, since that may not be representative of the heat exposure humans have during the day as well as at night, in a particular city.

AQI.in's April 27th data set included average humidity, recorded precipitation, maximum wind speed, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, UV index and average temperature for the whole day. This ranking was based on the average temperature over the entire day, not just the peak temperature in the afternoon, which makes it potentially different from the "highest maximum temperature" rankings that are commonly included in news reports. This difference is important in practice in that a city might have a modest afternoon peak, but an unusually warm night, and thus be at a higher continuous and cumulative heat load than a city with a high, but relatively low, afternoon peak, and a relatively cold night.

The Top Hottest Cities That Led the World

One set of data released on April 27th ranked several Indian cities among the global 50 hottest cities, garnering much attention to the heat situation in the interior regions of the country during that time period. Amravati and Kanpur were the next with average temperature of 39.5°C, followed by Banda in UP with 40.5°C. The first five places from this dataset were:

Even though it is a dry summer, the average temperature has remained at 40.5°C in Banda, Uttar Pradesh.

1. The average temperature at Amravati, Maharashtra is 39.5°C.

2. The average temperature in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh was 39.5°C.

3. The average temperature at Yavatmal, Maharashtra was 39.4°C.

4. The average temperature in Akola, Maharashtra is 39.3°C.

Many articles and social media posts about heat are based on rankings that may vary drastically by date, metric and data set. Ranking comparisons on different dates, sources, or methodologies without identifying these differences will not provide valuable understanding, but cause confusion. 

26 Indian Cities Showing Extreme Heat in the April Dataset

For readers looking for a verified city-level snapshot of extreme heat distribution across India, the first 26 entries in the April 27 dataset provide a reliable and sourced reference point:

The Geography of This Heatwave

The April data shows a strong and significant geographical clustering of the interior parts of India, which gives an important message of which are the parts of the country at the highest risk of heat exposure. Of the 50 cities in the full dataset, Uttar Pradesh had 21, followed by Maharashtra with 10, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, each with six cities, and Haryana with four cities as well as the individual cities of Delhi, Telangana and Chhattisgarh.

This geographic concentration is important for practical planning purposes as it is true for most inland cities that they are less moderated by maritime influences than coastal areas are. Urban development, including high-density residential building and significant hard surfaces, low tree cover and vegetation, and dense commercial and industrial development, may all exacerbate urban heat retention. The hotness of the ambient air is not the only problem in cities with high heat density. Urban buildings, roads, vehicles, continuous cooling systems and human activities contribute to the energy and heat inputs into the urban thermal environment in a manner that intensifies the basic meteorological inputs. 

What the Individual Parameters Reveal

On Humidity: 13%–21% Across the 50-City Dataset

Humidity alters the perception and response to the heat of the human body and is therefore an important factor in understanding the full heat load on individuals at any particular place. The April dataset had humidity levels ranging from 13% to 21% in its 50 cities, indicating relatively low levels of ambient moisture. Moisture loss from the body via perspiration can be significant, and the risk of dehydration sets in more rapidly with low humidity than is often realized, and in other situations, high humidity decreases the body's capacity for effective evaporative cooling. There are health hazards on both extremes that cannot be adequately captured by temperature numbers. 

On UV Index: Average 9.8 Across the Dataset

The UV indices in the reported data for the entire April time series were mostly extremely high. Raipur was at the bottom end of the spectrum with a UV index of 7.7, while Akola's was 10.7. These statistics clearly illustrate the importance of good heat protection practice, which always involves provision of shade, suitable clothing, regular drinks during the day and avoiding unnecessary exposure in the middle of the day when UV is highest and the risk from heat and radiation is most serious.

On Wind: 15.5 km/h to 59.8 km/h

The relief from heat that wind can offer can be helpful, or wind can lead to the loss of moisture from surfaces and from individuals depending on the humidity and temperature at the time. The max wind speed recorded at Etawah was 59.8 km/h, which was quite high in the April dataset. Strong dry winds can actually cause a faster rate of heat stress to develop, and make outside conditions less safe, regardless of the ambient temperature because it increases evaporative moisture loss without contributing to overall cooling.

On Precipitation: Near Zero in the April Dataset

The precipitation figure recorded at the listed cities on 27 April was almost negligible during the measurement period with Agra the highest recorded figure of 0.50 mm—from a water availability point of view, practically none. This is an important consideration for water resource planning, as the very high temperatures coupled with essentially no precipitation, with water use for cooling, irrigation and domestic needs all being high, can put considerable strain on local water resources that may be under pressure already due to prior periods of water shortages. 

What This Means for India

The combined datasets tell us most importantly that India has hot cities during the summer season. The most meaningful lesson learned is that the heat and water availability and infrastructure performance are inextricably linked and demand joint planning solutions. As temperatures increase regularly, individuals have to drink more water, or fluids, throughout the day to stay properly hydrated. Cooling systems run for much longer and at higher loads and use energy and in many cases water. Landscaping and irrigation for crops may need considerably more water to achieve the same effect. The water that is stored evaporates, which decreases the amount of water available. Demand for water increases in commercial facilities for all uses. Heat stress on workers is more severe and longer lasting and can impact productivity, health and safety. The cooling energy use goes up significantly, contributing to the cost and carbon footprint of operation. When exposed to chronic heat, water-stressed communities and ecosystems are more susceptible to the cumulative impacts.

Meanwhile in other areas, torrential monsoon rains can also occur at the same time, causing flooding and subsequent damage to the same infrastructure and systems. A resilient city has to have strategies that can manage water surpluses during periods of heavy rainfall, as well as water shortages during hotter and drier times – and possibly even in the same planning cycle.

Heat Safety – What the Numbers Mean for Daily Decisions

A heat tracker is truly valuable if the data it generates is acted upon at the individual, organizational and facility levels. For people, it involves paying close attention to official warnings issued by the India Meteorological Department, planning activities to avoid getting too thirsty as a warning signal, and consciously avoiding strenuous outdoor activity during the hottest hours of the day.

Shaded rest areas to be provided for outdoor workers, drinking water available at all work areas and made easy for workers to find, scheduling practices to minimize exposure to high heat and active monitoring of individuals who are more susceptible based on age, health, or job activities. It is the extreme heat, in particular, which is a serious environmental and occupational health risk, and as such, heat stress may aggravate a number of chronic diseases, thereby raising humanitarian and liability issues for employers, as clearly outlined by WHO. Preparing for failures before they happen by proactively checking water systems and cooling systems in buildings before extreme heat conditions is also a wise approach. 

Monitoring and Forecasting

For facility management, all types of facilities are becoming more and more critical and almost relevant to weather monitoring, not only in sectors where weather monitoring has been common practice, but in all types of buildings. Smart businesses are now starting to link weather forecast information with their operational systems to allow for more agile and efficient use of resources.

For a commercial facility, a practical environmental management system could incorporate incoming weather forecasts with real-time heat tracker data, monitoring of water consumption date and time, building occupancy data, irrigation demand monitoring, and scheduled maintenance, all of which could be utilized in a single decision-making process. Examples of automated controls that can be implemented in a commercial facility include automatically decreasing landscape flow during wet conditions, scheduling cool water system inspections ahead of anticipated extreme heat days, and tracking water loss information in real-time to identify potential leaks or equipment failures before they cause excessive water loss. The objective is not just to gather environmental information, but to utilize it on a regular basis to make more informed and timely decision making which can translate into cost savings, and enhanced resilience.

Impact on Water and Sustainable Buildings

For commercial properties, such as those that use a lot of water in a variety of ways throughout the day, the link between extreme heat and water use is particularly important and immediate. Water is used at all times by offices, shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, airports, and education facilities via toilets, urinals, kitchen activities, routine building cleaning, landscaping maintenance and cooling systems which can operate for long periods during heat events. All of these parameters present compelling reasons to reduce unnecessary water use even more strategically when total water demand increases and reliability of supply is placed at increasingly greater stress.

In this regard, a number of efforts can be taken to build resilience to water scarcity and utility costs, including the use of technologies such as waterless urinals, low-flow fixtures, onsite wastewater treatment, rainwater harvesting, and treated water reuse. Waterless urinals, like Zerodor—India's first GreenPro Certified waterless urinal technology developed by Ekam Eco Solutions and supported by research by IIT Delhi, can completely remove the use of water in that one water use fixture category throughout the life of the building. With more than 30,000 installations in over 700+ organizations such as the Indian Railways, Indian Army, Tata, Godrej and Taj Hotels, the technology has been proving its mettle at impactful scales across the toughest commercial spaces in India. 

WMO's Response

The World Meteorological Organization has repeatedly and explicitly stressed the importance of good weather forecasts, effective early warning systems and action on multi-sectoral coordination against extreme heat as a current and increasing threat. WMO also noted in 2026 that since the 1950s, climate change has led to more frequent and intense heatwaves all over the world, turning heat management a year-round planning and organizational challenge.

The WMO and WHO have taken steps to highlight the increasing and pressing need for heat-health action plans, especially in the South Asian region with high population density, urban heat density and restricted access to cooling for vulnerable groups. This translates to monitoring for heat and actions taken as part of the overall climate-resilience planning process at the city, building and community level in India, and not just as a periodic seasonality news item that subsides once monsoons come in.

List of Weather Records

Weather records are far more than just temperature data; knowing the complete spectrum of measurables gives a better sense of real climate risk in various locations and seasons. 

Temperature 

Some of the records listed are the highest temperature ever recorded in any place, the highest average temperature for any extended period in the world, the lowest temperature ever recorded, as well as the greatest difference in temperature between any two times or locations in the world. 

Humidity 

Records provide insight into how two cities with the same ambient temperature can be very different, both physically and subjectively, to the people who work and live there. 

Precipitation 

Highest single event rainfall, long duration rainfall, extreme rainfall intensity and historical records of snowfall in suitable regions are recorded. 

Wind Speed 

Records are important because extreme wind can contribute to the likelihood of damage to infrastructure, evaporation from water surfaces and vegetation, and transport of dust and particulates which can impact air quality and human health. 

Severe Weather 

These types of severe weather events that impact communities and infrastructure in various ways are categorized as: tornadoes, tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, floods, landslides, and others.

The historical weather record is useful for context in understanding how current weather and climate conditions compare to the historical context; however, a single record event should not be assumed to represent a long-term climate trend. Trends that can be used to guide planning with confidence can only be extracted from long-term datasets and are typically used in planning for decades.

What Businesses Can Do About Rising Heat and Water Stress

What is most feasible and feasible for businesses at this moment, is to build real resilience as part of their operations and facilities, long before extreme weather and water stress become the norm and not the exception in India.

There is a simple water and climate audit that measures water use by day, across all categories of use, and determines where efficiencies will bring the biggest water bill savings and identifies leaks within the facility, which can be repaired quickly and become a major water loss. In addition to this audit, organizations may be able to install water-efficient plumbing fixtures throughout the facility, such as waterless urinals with the strongest water savings case for use in high-traffic parts of the building; consider rainwater harvesting when building configuration allows it; use appropriately treated wastewater for non-potable uses, including irrigation and flushing; schedule the landscape irrigation system based on current weather conditions rather than fixed timers; and continuously monitor water use data along with weather forecasts to identify and respond to unusual water use patterns in a timely manner.

Ekam Eco Solutions specializes in sustainable solutions to environmental and water-management problems that are specific to organizations that want to achieve measurable changes in the use of resources and in the performance of their facilities and want to make sustainability a reality. Zerodor's waterless sanitation and advanced odor-control system provides a practical and proven solution for the restroom. Waterless urinals can be an important and immediate element in a comprehensive water reduction program that helps manage the increasing cost of water and water availability issues in buildings where water use in the restroom is a major factor. 

FAQs

What does the 26-city heat report mean?

According to the Daily Heat Tracker report on July 28, 2026, 26 cities had temperatures higher than their normal maximums while the highest temperature for the day for Chennai in that report was 38.8°C. 

What is the maximum temperature for the month of April in the dataset 2026?

The highest ever average temperature was 40.5°C in the data set for April 27 in Banda, UP with a maximum temperature of 46.2°C. 

Why is a heat tracker important?

A heat tracker can aid in understanding temperature trends and aid in real-world applications for public health, work management, infrastructure planning, water demand forecasting, and emergency preparedness. 

What is heat density?

Heat density is the amount and duration of heat in an urban area due to the fact that buildings, roads, sparse vegetation and human activity all contribute to increased amounts of heat exposure in a specific area when compared to nonurban areas.

How does extreme heat affect water consumption?

During hot weather, there is a heightened demand for drinking water as well as a demand for irrigation water, for cooling of open surfaces, and for cooling systems. All of these demands place an additional strain on available water supplies. 

Can water-efficient buildings help during extreme heat?

Yes. Use of efficient fixtures, rainwater harvesting, wastewater reuse, proactive leak management, and waterless sanitation help lower unnecessary freshwater use and make a significant contribution to building resilience during water and heat stress.

Conclusion

The journey of India's evolving climate is far too large for a list of warm places. What the July 28, 2026 report reveals about India—26 cities (including Andhra Pradesh's capital) with higher than normal maximum temperatures, and other parts of the country receiving heavy monsoon rainfall at the same time—is a true reflection of how complex and interconnected India's climate and water challenges have become. An integrated approach to climate resilience, water management, efficient infrastructure and responsible resource management is needed at all levels from national policy to building operations. A good heat tracker will point us towards the direction of change. The impact of buildings and communities when those conditions occur depends on a thoughtful and proactive water management strategy. If your organisation wants to become more resource efficient today, then Ekam Eco Solutions and Zerodor are pragmatic and effective solutions to implement better water management, sustainable sanitation and environmentally responsible operations.