VANE GLORY

Meet India’s independent weathermen, whose precise and timely predictions are all the rage on social media

- PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

When it rains, it pours in queries. Will schools go online? Will flights be delayed or cancelled? Will it affect crops? Should I carry an umbrella to office? Will the cricket match be called off? Braving a volley of questions is a growing community of independent weathermen in India that has been capturing cloud images and tracking rainfall, temperature and wind direction to accurately predict weather and weather events like thunderstorms or floods. The technology upgrade in weather forecasting has been a boon for aspiring weather bloggers as they now get real-time data—satellite images, maps, charts and weather models—on their mobile phones. Their timely updates and predictions are not only making the common man weather-wise, but also helping avert loss of life and property. And, in the age of the internet, they have acquired celebrity status, especially post the 2015 Chennai floods.

These weather enthusiasts come from diverse backgrounds, bound together by a passion for all things meteorological. Take, for instance, Rajesh Kapadia, 69, a retired businessman from Mumbai. He runs the Vagaries of the Weather blog. Then there is Sai Praneeth Burra (@APWeatherman96), 25, an electrical engineering graduate. His forecasts benefiting the villages in Andhra Pradesh even found a mention on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat. In Kolkata, Santosh Subramanian, 28, relies not just on real-time data but also on real-time reporting from a huge community of citizen reporters to update his Weather of Kolkata blog. Pradeep John, 40, better known as Tamil Nadu Weatherman, is the go-to man for people of Chennai, a city that witnesses relentless rains for eight months a year.