'AP Weatherman' becomes trusted name for weather updates

Tirupati: 'Andhra Pradesh Weatherman' has become a buzz word in recent times and more so for the past two weeks as people from all walks of life are relying on it to get the real time weather updates. For 24-year-old weather blogger and native of Tirupati, B Sai Praneeth studying climate changes has become a passion even from childhood.

Though it is not a profession for this BTech gold medallist in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Anna University, Chennai and working as a software engineer in Bengaluru, his curiosity and concern towards climate drives him to spend hours together daily studying various weather models and post accurate updates in his social media accounts from time to time.

He has been posting many useful forecasts on the heavy rains which lashed Rayalaseema and Nellore district and several of his posts became viral on social media platforms. For him, each day starts with studying all numerical weather models and decoding the satellite images for almost 2-3 hours to prepare a weather update and post it on social media. Even in office, whenever he finds some time, his eyes go through the radar images from his mobile and he never forgets posting the real time updates to alert people on weather conditions.

"During weekends, I try to work on studying the weather pattern in the next one or two weeks. Occasionally, debates will be conducted with experts on changes in climate conditions to create awareness among people particularly for farmers," he told The Hans India. Without simply posting the updates on social media platforms, he used to call the Collectors to give updates which are very useful for them to act accordingly.

When he posted a page on 'Weather of South India' on his FB wall while studying BTech it attracted about 25,000 followers instantly. He has been intensively working on the climate changes and posting updates for the past one year and got a rare distinction of presenting his views at the UN Habitat convention in June this year. Its journal site featured his work and stated that his weather blog and website found a significant following among rural farmers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded his efforts to help farmers by providing weather related information in the local language. The PM spoke to Sai Praneeth during his 'Mann Ki Baat' in July this year. Modi personally follows Praneeth's twitter account along with 35,000 other followers. He said that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy also admired his contributions recently.

"My intention is to provide weather information in a lucid manner so that even the common man should be able to understand it better," he maintained.