The Perfect Storm: Travels With Kolkata Cloud Chasers

“The imbroglio of inky cloud swirling overhead contained nimbostratus, cumulonimbus and Lord knows what else.”

That's one of the many descriptions of clouds in India in Chasing the Monsoon, a must-read book by Alexander Frater, a British-Australian journalist who made a trip to India in 1987 to chase the monsoon as it travelled across the country. The book has been continuously in print since it was first published 32 years ago. Frater's father was a meteorologist, and though observing weather patterns was once limited mostly to weathermen like him, it has now spilled over to the realm of ordinary folks. There are informal groups across the world who get together, travelling to chase clouds, storms, hurricanes, etc at regular intervals through the year. 

We caught up with one such group in our part of the world, the Kolkata Cloud Chasers (KCC) whose members range from digital marketing consultants to freelance photographers.  

The members are: Debarshi Duttagupta (Roadrunner), Chirasree Chakraborty (Phoenix), Diganta Gogoi (Hellboi), Joyjeet Mukherjee (Boltanator), Abhishek Saigal (Thunderman), Suman Kumar Ghosh (Goodboy), Krishnendu Chakraborty (Zeus), and Indranil Kar (Albatross). The nicknames are their call signs, used when the group is on walkie talkies, which happens often when they are chasing storms as cellphone signals get lost often.

Their travels have taken them across the state, from the highest point to the southernmost part of Bengal, from Sandakphu in the Eastern Himalayas to Henry Island near the Bay of Bengal.  

When KCC was formed in 2014, the members had connected with several famous tornado chasers in America through social media who had encouraged and guided them. At that time, weather forecasting systems were not very good in India. The IMD website used to get updated every half an hour or so. Now with updated weather prediction systems from the government of India - including multiple weather satellites - weather maps are updated by the minute. "We have learned from experience in all these years with basic knowledge, and that has helped in situations where these apps don’t work due to unforeseen circumstances," they say.

With the upcoming arrival of the Kalboishakhis - Bengal's nor'westers and the summer's fiercest storms - the group is gearing up for a chase, again.

Excerpts from our chat.

Planning For A Chase 

With advance weather predictions by India’s meteorologists we do get some ideas for our trips in advance - regarding formation of favourable conditions for localised thunderstorms in this region. Our team members are also equipped to read the weather data and form our own storm path predictions. Once we have the data and the plan, we wait for the actual storm to form. We normally get to see the storm forming through various apps and through IMD’s official website. Once we have the location and a possible trajectory of the storm, we meet up and start driving along the highways towards our desired location. We have “trackers” in the team responsible for tracking the formation of the storm and finding out the location and trajectory. Then it is the job of our team “navigators” or the drivers to drive the team to our desired location. Once we are near, then it is upto to the “spotters” to physically spot the storm direction in the horizon. Once we have a visual sight of the storm, then it is a matter of choosing a safe location to start photographing the storm.  

The Equipment For The Chase

Our photographic tools include cameras, lenses, tripods, lightning triggers, filters and battery chargers, and lightning detectors. We have multiple GoPros, Insta 360 camera and DJi Pocket, and two video cameras for documentation for our vlogs. Our tracking and communication equipment include our tablets and phones with preloaded apps (paid subscriptions), coupled with mobile radios (free bands) for inter-team communications during the storm chases. We have outfitted chase vehicles which we call SCIF’s (Storm and Cloud Chase Four Wheelers). Between us, we have several SCIFs - a Force Gurkha, an Isuzu Dmax V cross, a Mahindra Thar, a Renault Triber,, etc. The SCIF Gurkha was there for the Bulbul chase, the Isuzu we used in the Arambagh trip, and the Renault Duster for the  Frezargunj chase. From this season, we are including a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon in the team. Our SCIFs have additional recovery equipment like tow straps, winches, sand ladders, etc.

KCC's Most Memorable Trips

Chasing Bulbul: It was November 9, 2019 when Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Bulbul made landfall near Sagar Island in West Bengal, around 6-7pm. As it's extremely dangerous to chase and document a cyclone during the landfall period, we planned our chase to start very early in the morning towards Henry Island and decided to leave the location by 1pm. We got the first glimpse of Bulbul's leader cloud when we crossed Hatania Doyania river and reached 'Dosh Mile' (10 mile). Then we headed towards Henry Island and got a visual of the outer rim of the cyclone. The next few hours we behaved like some crazy kids - all the while keeping the safety rules in mind. Around 1pm, the gusting started to peak, we sense the upcoming mayhem and decided to leave the location. The gusting was so high and strong that our chase vehicle, The Gurkha Force, started swaying. Immediately, a heavy downpour started, but we successfully managed to pull back in time. It was truly a chase to remember.

The Arambagh Storm: On April 7, 2018, we had started from Kolkata early afternoon, heading towards Kolaghat. Multiple systems were visible on the app called Weatherbug that we use extensively to locate storm cell formations. We decided to head towards the west. As we turned north before Kolaghat, we lost our cellphone signals. This meant our app was of no use and we were chasing blind. We have been storm chasing since the time when there were no apps to show what was happening. That certainly helped when the app went offline. We went back to visual tracking of the storm and finally after many hours of tracking, and driving through narrow village roads and over makeshift wooden bridges with a 2-ton SUV, we finally got the storm near Arambagh during late evening. The storm was simply gorgeous with shelf clouds and heavy lightning. Unfortunately the bolts took out the power supply in that area which meant that the cellphone towers were down. We were, once again, without any app services. And we lost our way. Thankfully, locals in the area helped us with directions and we were able to make it out thanks to our extra roof-mounted LED lights. 

The Frazerganj Storm: On Nov 1, 2015, we were chasing a depression over the Bay of Bengal and our calculation showed storm clouds near the coastal town of Bakkhali , Henry Island and Frazerganj. This was over 140 kms from Kolkata. We started out early, at 6am. In those days, the Hathania Doania river had to be crossed on a barge (now there's a bridge). We crossed the river and drove towards Bakkhali. We reached Frazerganj first and got down on the beach to visually locate any storm cloud formations. And there it was - a huge shelf cloud formation 25-30 kms from the beach. There were stunning views as we started taking out our cameras to document the formation. 

The Most Dangerous Things They Face

The two worst things that we have to deal with during our storm chases are lightning and flying debris. The threat of getting struck by lightning is always there during storm chases. However there are some basic rules for staying safe from a lightning strike. Standing in an open space during thunderstorms is absolutely not recommended. Standing under a tree, or a metal pole, or holding any metal object, can attract lightning strikes and it is best to avoid those activities during a thunderstorm. Sudden strong gusts during a localised thunderstorm can also lead to flying debris. Small metal objects, tin plates, small pebbles, strands of straw, plastic bottles, etc coming at you at a considerable pace can lead to injuries. During these situations, it is always safety first. You need to take shelter under an enclosed space, or in our case, we wait in our chase vehicles. 

Planning the escape route from a location from where we plan to document a passing storm is a critical survival exercise. Our storm chase vehicles are big SUVs and weigh more than a couple of tonnes. During any chase. our first instinct is to save ourselves should things go wrong. As we enter village roads, and dry river beds with our chase vehicles, the last thing we want is to get bogged down in mud or sand in case we get stuck in the middle of a storm. That is why we study the place plan out an escape route before starting to photograph the storms.

Things Can Get Very Interesting On The Road

Storm chasing is not exactly a familiar and known activity in India. Wherever we stop with our decked-up storm chase vehicles, curious locals ask us about the cars - what exactly they are supposed to do. Most of them think that we are crazy city folk running behind these powerful weather phenomena. Sometimes they assume we are a 'film party' - we had one incident where they assumed that the male chasers in our group were villains trying to kidnap the ladies. 

The Closest They Have Been To A Really Bad One

That was when two of our members, Chirasree (Phoenix) and Abhishek (Thunderman) were struck by lightning (by some upward streamers).

In Chirasree's case, the incident happened on April 5, 2019, when a fierce nor'wester was happening over Kolkata. "The storm core was just above my location so I was not shooting at that time because it's very dangerous to shoot lightning when the storm is just above your head. I was standing inside, just in front of our terrace-door, when a massive lightning happened. Instantly, I felt like electric shock on my fingers and felt numbness. I got to know later that there were some upward streamers beside me, which took some charge away from me. It was scary and that numbness on my fingers clogged my mind too! I couldn't shoot lightning further in that particular season."

For Abhishek, the incident happened in June 2018, when a localised thunderstorm hit Kolkata during the afternoon. The lightning strike count was pretty high on that day and we all were chirping in our KCC WhatsApp group. Suddenly a massive bolt landed over the 42 Building in Central Kolkata. The strike was so powerful it was clearly visible from the southern most part of Kolkata too. We all went crazy, and suddenly noticed Abhishek was not speaking. He had successfully managed to capture that 42 bolt but was struck by some upward streamers (possibly) which took some charge away from his body. He was numb,  and his BP went up. 

The Differences In Weather Patterns Over The Years

There's been a noticeable change in the weather patterns here. Recently, we saw hwo Cyclone Jawad formed over the Bay of Bengal and came close to the Puri coast. West Bengal recieved a lot rainfall. Cyclone Jawad was a bit special, because its trajectory was a rare case during that time of the year. Also, the kalboishakhis and localised storms are becoming more intense. The lightning strikes count is increasing and is more deadly. And the kalboishakhis are showing a tendency to bypass Kolkata, precisely South Kolkata, and are taking the New Town route. We think the heat island effect and lack of water bodies are the main reasons behind this.