Sai Kiran, a weather blogger popularly known as ‘the Vizag weatherman’ has been a busy man for the last 48 hours. On the trot, he has been providing authentic and informative weather updates ever since the words related to Cyclone Gulab making its landfall near Kalingapatnam was in the air.

Mr. Kiran, a native of Gajuwaka area, has more than 2,500 followers on social media platforms.

“On September 15, the weather system was suggestive of a cyclonic storm, which was confirmed five days ago. Since then, I have been tracking it. Initially, the weather system suggested that it could hit the coast between Puri in Odisha and Visakhapatnam. However, 36 hours before landfall, I was convinced that the cyclone was heading straight towards the north Andhra region and would make landfall between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam, and I was right,” said Mr. Sai Kiran.

The weather blogger said that he tracked the path of the weather system relentlessly and continued to post updates on social media.

“I have not slept for the last 48 hours as I have been receiving a number of messages from my followers and those I do not even know. They had been raising queries about the status of the storm and how it could affect them,” said Mr. Sai Kiran.

Apart from posting updates, he has been assuring people not to panic. “Given the trail of destruction the Cyclone Hudhud had left in 2014, people of Visakhapatnam are scared of cyclonic storms. I have been assuring them with scientific facts that Cyclone Gulab would not be of that intensity,” he said.

Mr. Sai Kiran took to weather blogging after 29-year-old Sai Praneeth from Tirupati was lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme for his services pertaining to providing real-time updates about weather.

What makes the weather bloggers different from the mainstream weather forecast is that they provide ‘short-range forecast’ for the local areas. Their forecast may go right or sometimes wrong, but the demand for the daily updates from their followers never goes down.

How it started

Mr. Sai Kiran, an alumnus of the Raghu College of Engineering, is working with a private construction company now. He was fascinated by the movement of the clouds since childhood and he developed interest on tracking cyclones after the city was hit by Hudhud, in 2014.

“I started to focus on the convergence and divergence, rainfall accumulation, wind patterns, cyclone forecast and tracking the movement of weather systems and a few other factors. I started with a WhatsApp group with friends and family members before switching to blogging on social media platforms,” said Mr. Sai Kiran.