As Cyclone Asani Approaches, Odisha Weatherman Is Here To Keep You Updated

Severe cyclone Asani, on Tuesday, is raging over the Bay of Bengal, about 300 km southeast of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, packing a wind speed of 105 km per hour amidst indication of a gradual weakening later in the day. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), there is a possibility that cyclonic storm Asani may not make landfall on the Andhra Pradesh coast and is likely to weaken into a cyclonic storm in the next 24 hours.

The weather office has also warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall at some places in north coastal Andhra for the next two days. By Tuesday night, the cyclone was expected to inch closer to the north Andhra Pradesh coast and then re-curve to move parallel to north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast after which it was likely to gradually lose steam, the weather office said.

A forecast of heavy rainfall has been made at isolated places over coastal Odisha from Tuesday evening.

Well, this was all official data.

There is a 23-year-old guy from Odisha who is giving updates on his Twitter handle named – Odisha Weatherman. His predictions are so precise that we predict that he is soon to be the next ace meteorological expert that the government is very likely to recruit.

Named Biswajit Sahoo, the boy is a resident of Konark who is pursuing an MSc in Oceanography at Berhampur University, Odisha. He picked an amazing and responsible knack for following the weather which has now taken the shape of his Twitter handle and WhatsApp group where he provides weather updates especially related to the east coast and Bay of Bengal.

Fascination Towards Cyclone

Also, read: Why India Has Become A Hotbed For Cyclones?

Odisha is one of those unfortunate states that is hit by cyclones almost twice across the year. This has been terrorizing the natives who have to battle the calamity every now and then. The only respite is the amazing disaster management by Naveen Pattnaik run government and the talented weather experts who are ever ready to face the extremities.

This plight also struck Biswajit, especially after Cyclone Phailin (2013). He was boggled by the fact that mere clouds in the sky could turn so disastrous. He wanted to learn how and for that he decided to study them and help the citizens in the process.

“When I generated the interest in this subject, my school teachers introduced and helped me understand subjects like Geology and Metrology,” said Biswajit to LifeBeyondNumbers with a special mention of Professor Munmun.

Next, he went on to pursue BSc in Geology from Utkal University. There he met Professor Dinabandhu, who guided him and helped him pick tips and tricks.

Biswajit wanted to start telling the common people about the thing he learned and that’s why he chose social media. He was inspired by ‘VIZAG Weatherman’ AKA S Sai Kiran Suri, ‘Andhra Pradesh Weatherman’ AKA Sai Praneeth, and ‘Weather@Hyderabad’ AKA Rajni.

Finally, in June 2020, Biswajit started out as ‘Odisha Weatherman’.

Yet he did have doubts about doing all this for he is but very young and not working from the government or any registered weather portal or organization.

“I used to constantly wonder if people would laugh at me or even follow me. But slowly and steadily, I built my confidence and a pattern. I generally tweet the all-India forecast by 9 AM and the Odisha-specific forecast by 10 AM. Only after that do I sit down with my books. Then again at night, I try to offer a synopsis of the day to my followers,” Sahoo told.

Below is his latest update on cyclonic storm Asani.

Residents of Odisha and Andhra constantly follow him on Twitter for he’s actually so precise about his predictions. But this left out the people from rural areas. And so, along with tweeting with Odia, he has started putting out videos about the weather in Odia too.

“The brunt of the cyclones is often borne by those who reside in the rural areas so I would like to help them. I already have a closed Facebook group because farmers and rural folk are more active on Facebook. They are also active on YouTube, so I hope to start a YouTube channel very soon. It’s in the works. In fact, Jatin Singh, the Founder and Managing Director of Skymet Weather Services was the one who encouraged me to start forecasting in Odia, my regional language,” he said.

He also started a website of his own forgiving weather updates but then with so much to study he has paused updating it and also the Facebook group is not so updated. But he tries to overcome all that through WhatsApp and Twitter.

There are several weather models and portals that Biswajit is acquainted with and he uses them all to fulfill what he has always wanted to do — help people. This includes GFS (Global Forecast System), IMD GFS, ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), windy.com, Tropical Tidbits, etc.

“Patience! That’s what one needs the most while predicting. There are others who will laugh at you when you go wrong, but you must correct your mistakes and keep moving on,” concluded Biswajit.

For more weather updates by Biswajit, follow Odisha Weatherman on Twitter.