Storm in a teacup: Rumours flood battered Bangalore

Storm in a teacup: Rumours flood battered Bangalore

The Times of India


Bangalore: On Thursday the city was flooded. Not with rain but with rumours of a storm supposed to hit the city with winds of 60 kmph between 3 pm and 5 pm. The message sent via SMS and email also stated that the information was validated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Panic-stricken people frantically sought confirmation from offices of the Indian Meteorological Department, Airports Authority of India and the media. While the Met office wondered where this information had come from, the AAI strongly denied having sent out any such message.

“Why should we send out such information?” wondered Airport Director (Bangalore) S Krishnamurthy. “We don’t predict the weather. Obviously, some miscreant sent a message that triggered the panic button across the city,” he said.
The met office had predicted heavy rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday. While Wednesday turned out to be bright and sunny, the city did not see heavy rainfall till late evening on Thursday.

“Sometimes like the train, even the rain is liable to pick up or lose momentum. Unfortunately, no one appreciated us when we got it right. This time the rain has ditched us by 24 hours. But there will be rainfall for the next 24 hours,” said IMD director A L Koppar.

The deep depression formed over the Bay of Bengal, 300 km east of the Chennai coast, is likely to move west, under whose influence south interior Karnataka, Bangalore in particular, will receive heavy rainfall, said Koppar.

But the mischief-mongers got lucky. At 3 pm, there were strong winds and rain. Another round of confirmatory messages did the rounds. But the rain and wind died down quickly. By then, people realised they’d been conned as they’d left office early to avoid the storm.

“I came home at 3 pm and was delighted to see the wind and rain. But when I realised the message was not true I cursed myself for not finishing an important assignment,” said S Ramesan, financial analyst at a multinational company.
Guess who who gets the maximum number of calls and visitors these days? The callers and visitors range from Chief Minister N Dharam Singh to other politicians to civic body heads to corporates and VVIPS. They’re all speed dialling Indian Meteorological Department director A L Koppar.

“I can’t express how I feel now. We have been receiving calls from so many people. Some want to know why our predictions did not come true and others want to know if it will rain in the next 24 hours,” said Koppar. (For the record, it may.)

He adds: “But the weather can be sly. There could be all the signs of heavy rain and clouds but in hours they could ditch us. Instead of using the umbrella for the rain, they could use for protection from the Sun. Ditto for Wednesday.”
Like everyone else, Koppar is waiting to see if his forecast will come true.