Citizens rely on weather bloggers

K. Srikanth, a passionate weather blogger, who started COMK with other enthusiastic weather monitors, said, “Until two weeks, we had around 500 followers on our Twitter account. But today, we have close to 9,000 followers! We post real time updates on the weather. I create my own maps and highlight the areas, which may receive more rain - make it visually appealing.”

“When the rains started after Deepavali, we had many users post about the water logged areas, so that people can find an alternative route to reach their workplaces or homes.

Slowly, people started to send us images of cloud cover and weather situation in their areas,” he added.

The bloggers include Srikanth, a marketing professional, Selvakumar, an IT professional in Tokyo and Sailesh an art designer who helps with graphic representation of data. All the bloggers have regular day jobs but they do this out of passion.

Srikanth shares tips on how to gear up for the rainy days ahead. Be alert – information is not scarce, as many weather bloggers give regular updates on social media. Stock up on essential items like grocery and medicines. Please don’t spread rumours. If you get any message about the rain situation, clarify with another source before forwarding it. Water logging could be an issue in the next few days.