Mansa villager beats weather apps with local data
When mobile weather apps predicted heavy rain and the Meteorological Department issued alerts, but the clouds merely drifted past without a drop, it was Baljinder Singh Mann from Ballon village in Mansa district, who proved right even without having much resources.
Mann often questioned how large institutions got it wrong, while his forecast from a small village stood accurate.
His answer: real-time data, not miracles.
Baljinder is not a trained meteorologist in the conventional sense, but for his over 1.4 lakh Instagram and 1.63 lakh Facebook followers, he is “Punjab’s Weather Man.”
Alongside farming, he runs a social media page titled “Mausam Punjab Da”, providing accurate local weather updates. His secret lies in real-time data, collected through two automatic weather stations (AWS) and a lightning detector radar, one of which is installed right on the rooftop of his house.
“Whoever has the data and knows how to analyse it will predict the weather correctly, whether sitting in a Mansa village, Delhi or New York,” he says.
Mann’s updates now reach an estimated 17 to 18 million users every month. Using his rooftop AWS, he collects data on wind speed, air pressure, humidity, temperature, leaf wetness, soil moisture and rainfall. All this is integrated into his custom mobile application that records and tracks real-time weather patterns.
Mann’s passion for meteorology began in childhood. After finishing his 10th grade, he set his sights on joining the India Meteorological Department (IMD). He completed his BSc and began preparing for MSc in meteorology. However, due to an unexpected family issue, he had to drop his higher education and take up full-time farming.
“It was a tough phase, but my passion wasn’t dependent on a degree,” says Baljiinder. “Since 2013, I began analysing weather data from various websites and started making predictions. When my forecasts about rain and storms started proving true, fellow farmers took notice. Some even thanked me, saying my predictions helped save their crops. That encouraged me to do more.”
In 2018, he started his social media page to expand his outreach. Initially sharing forecasts in English, he soon switched to easy Punjabi on public demand and now even shares weather updates through videos. Mann believes the government system has skilled and hardworking people, but for accurate local forecasts, real-time, region-specific data is essential, something existing systems lack. Punjab has around 30 AWS stations at the government level, but many are non-functional, making precise forecasting nearly impossible.
“Recently, the government even stopped providing weather data and satellite imagery on its website. We now have to subscribe to major data services to keep things going,” Mann says. “While it’s a passion, maintaining this setup requires significant investment, something that isn’t fully covered by social media revenue.”
Punjab