Climate risk in Chennai
Tamil Nadu, India · 7.2M people in the urban area
What threatens Chennai most
- Water stress
- Extremely High WRI Aqueduct
- Drought
- Extremely High WRI Aqueduct
- Cyclone wind
- Category 3 once in 100 years IRIS
Tsunamis and landslides are not rated for a single city here. Climate risk profile of India
Drought risk in Chennai: Extremely High, on WRI's scale.
Mumbai: High.
Extremely High © OpenStreetMap Chennai's climate in the 2050s
2041-2060 compared with 1991-2020, moderate emissions
By the 2050s, Chennai's climate will still be more like its own today than any other large city's. The nearest other is Madurai (India).
+1°C
Mean temperature over the year
+1.1°C
Highest in the warmest month
+1°C
Lowest in the coldest month
+4%
Precipitation over the year
Under high emissions, Chennai would stay nearest its own climate today.
Its own climate today is 4.1 σ away. How close the match is: 5.5 σ to the climate of Madurai today, where under 2 is close and over 4 is no match (Mahony et al. 2017). 3 of 3 climate model runs name the same city. Seasonal temperature and rain are compared, not extremes, city heat or the sea.
Where else Chennai stands out
365 days
Tropical nights in 2025, over 20 °C
Mumbai: 319 days.
Higher than in 93% of the world's 630 large cities
Hazards at Chennai
Read at the city's centre and compared with the Atlas's 630 large cities. Moderate emissions is the IPCC's scenario SSP2-4.5.
| Hazard | Chennai | Among large cities | In India |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot days in 2025, over 35 °C | 21 days | Among large cities: above 67% | In India: 44 of 50 |
| Tropical nights in 2025, over 20 °C | 365 days | Among large cities: above 93% | In India: 1 of 50 |
| Hottest day of 2025 | 35.9°C | Among large cities: above 47% | In India: 45 of 50 |
| Warming by 2050, moderate emissions | +1°C | Among large cities: above 1% | In India: 50 of 50 |
| Days with 20 mm of rain or more in 2025 | 7 days | Among large cities: above 40% | In India: 47 of 50 |
| River flood depth, 100-year event | Dry at the city centre point | ||
| Coastal flood depth, 100-year event | Dry at the city centre point | ||
| Sea level rise by 2050, moderate emissions | 156 mm | Among large cities: above 3% | In India: 5 of 8 |
| Water stress | Extremely High (>80%) | Among large cities: above 70% | In India: 1 of 50 |
| Drought risk | Extremely High | Among large cities: above 95% | In India: 1 of 49 |
| Earthquake shaking, once in 475 years | 0.28 m/s² | Among large cities: above 30% | In India: 37 of 50 |
| Land burned in an average year | 0% | ||
| Cyclone wind, once in 100 years | 51.57 m/s |
Flood depth is read in a single 1 km cell at the city's centre, in today's climate. Other parts of the city can still flood. The country page names the deepest point near a coastal city in 2080, so its figure can be higher. See how deep a river flood reaches around Chennai on the live map
See the tropical nights around Chennai on the live map
365 days © OpenStreetMap Large cities near Chennai
- Bengaluru · India
- Tiruchirappalli · India
- Vijayawada · India
- Amaravati · India
Large cities in India
- Mumbai
- Delhi
- Kolkata
- Bengaluru
- Hyderabad
- Amaravati
- Ahmedabad
- Howrah
- Pune
- Surat
- Kanpur
- Jaipur
- Lucknow
- Nagpur
- Patna
- Indore
- Vadodara
- Bhopal
- Coimbatore
- Ludhiana
- Agra
- Kalyān
- Visakhapatnam
- Kochi
- Nashik
- Tirunelveli
- Meerut
- Faridabad
- Varanasi
- Ghaziabad
- Asansol
- Jamshedpur
- Madurai
- Jabalpur
- Rajkot
- Dhanbad
- Amritsar
- Warangal
- Prayagraj
- Srinagar
- Vijayawada
- Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
- Bhilai
- Solapur
- Jodhpur
- Gwalior
- Ranchi
- Tiruchirappalli
- Kota
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Source: Criora (criora.com), based on ECMWF, NEX-GDDP-CMIP6, WRI, IPCC, GSHAP, GFED500, IRIS: the Imperial College Storm Model dataset
APA
Criora. (2026). Chennai, India: climate risk profile [Data set]. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://criora.com/atlas/IND/chennai BibTeX
@misc{criora_atlas_IND_chennai_2026,
author = {{Criora}},
title = {Chennai, India: climate risk profile},
year = {2026},
url = {https://criora.com/atlas/IND/chennai},
urldate = {2026-11-02}
} Each reading stays under its source's terms; the sources are named on this page.
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