When there are murky clouds in the skyline Chennaities just login to Facebook and check the forecast by ‘Tamil Nadu Weatherman’. With around 4.5 lakh followers for his page in Facebook ‘Tamil Nadu Weatherman’ is the most reliable weather forecaster in this part of the country and as his name suggests his forecasts cover the whole region of Tamil Nadu.
The name ‘Tamil Nadu Weatherman’ came to the fore during the Chennai deluge in December 2015. His predictions of rain were near accurate whereas the Met department failed to foresee the magnitude of the downpour which almost crippled the southern metropolitan for about a week. Pradeep John is the name behind this forecasting.
A Pulviophile, John was in love with rain even when he was a kid. As a 12-year-old boy, he watched the landfall of the cyclone that shook Chennai with heavy rainfall and strong winds at the speed of over 100 kmph, in 1994. He continued watching the rain and slowly developed the hobby of tracking rainfalls of various places. In 2008 he started blogging and all his posts were about rains and rain-related information.
He entered Facebook in 2012 with the ‘Tamil Nadu Weatherman’ page and continued his passion for spreading the news of rain. At that time he had only 1000 followers. It was during the Chennai floods in 2015 November-December ‘Tamil Nadu Weatherman’ became a much sought after name in weather forecasting and the number of his followers increased many-fold. His predictions on cyclone Vardha last year proved that his forecasts aren’t flash in the pan kind of stuff. Generally John gets the open source data which is available to the Met department but his interpretation of the data is what that makes the difference. Sometimes he may not have the data privy to the Met department yet he manages to make his unfailing predictions with the information available.
John’s forecasts are not like the usual mundane weather reports which are rigid predictions dotted with meteorological terms. He says things in the language of the common man; he even uses popular intensifiers in Tamil like ‘semma’. His postings are in the tone of a friend offering some advice on a rainy day. ‘Hey, Rajesh, there will be mild to heavy rains in your area from 4 to 7 pm, be prepared and take care’, kind of suggestions are what one gets from his postings.
According to John the main aim of his forecasts is to alleviate the anxiety of the general public during overcast conditions. In trying times the rumour mills work overtime in social media with the sole aim of causing panic. John’s predictions help to ease the situation. John narrows in on localities and that’s why people prefer him over Met department. The statistics he provides makes for interesting reading.
He goes beyond predictions and compares rainfalls, water level in dams etc., in terms of time and places. Most of his posts are accompanied by satellite pictures, sometimes videos.
It is not only during rains and cyclones people look to him but also when there is a cricket match or a marathon in an overcast day. John is Deputy Manager at Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited and is married to Hannah, the couple has a daughter.
Often we could see on his page only a short line on weather stating that he would write in detail once he is back home. Over the years John’s passion of weather tracking has only grown. He seems to be a happy man performing his yeoman service in a tricky field where there is virtually no one else.
