‘Underwear storm’ hits Chinese city. What's going on?

Imagine waking up to find the skies raining not water, but a cascade of undergarments—bras, panties, and boxers floating through the air like whimsical confetti.

Sounds too bizarre?

Well, this was true for the residents of Chongqing, a sprawling megacity in southwestern China, where an unexpected weather event dubbed the “9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis” unfolded on Monday, The Guardian reported.

“I just went out and it suddenly started to rain heavily and underwear fell from the sky,” shared one resident, Ethele, on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Here’s what we know of this extraordinary ‘underwear storm’.

The storm of unmentionables

For over a week, Chongqing and its surrounding regions endured a scorching heatwave, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius.

Known as China’s “furnace city” for its blistering summers, Chongqing faced a red alert for extreme heat for 12 consecutive days till September 1.

The relentless heat even forced the delay of the autumn semester in schools and universities in Chongqing and Sichuan provinces.

To combat the sweltering conditions and alleviate drought, authorities turned to cloud-seeding technology. This method, which involves dispersing chemicals like silver iodide into clouds to induce rainfall, has been used globally since the 1940s in countries such as China, the US, Australia, Thailand, and Russia.

The technique was most recently deployed in the UAE, which experienced a year’s worth of rainfall in just a few days earlier this year. This sudden deluge caused severe flooding in the desert nation.

Last week, nearly 200 cloud-seeding rockets were launched in the southwestern Chinese city, successfully bringing rain to the parched region.

However, on Monday, a sudden windstorm, with gusts reaching up to 122 km/h, swept through Chongqing. This unexpected tempest scattered laundry from the high-rise balconies across the city, resulting in the unusual “underwear storm."

‘Chongqing will never forget this heavy day’

As the unusual storm swept through Chongqing, Douyin, China’s equivalent to TikTok, was inundated with videos capturing the sight of pants and bras soaring through the sky, landing in streets and snagging on trees.

While some residents shared their bizarre experiences with disbelief, others found humour in the chaos.

“The people of Chongqing will never forget this heavy day,” a local resident told The Guardian.

One person, who lost a brand-new set of Calvin Klein underwear, joked, “Who’s going to compensate me for my emotional damage?” Meanwhile, another individual, deprived of his underwear, found himself “laughing like crazy” but lamented that the storm had turned him into a “lifelong introvert.”

The underwear storm quickly also became a viral sensation on Weibo, where tens of thousands of comments flooded in.

The hashtag “underwear crisis” amassed over 7 million views, making it the 11th most popular topic across China on Wednesday.

Another hashtag, poking fun at the Chongqing Meteorological Bureau, engaged 18 million users, suggesting that “if you think you messed up at work, just think of the Chongqing Meteorological Bureau”.

Amid speculation that cloud seeding was to blame, authorities refuted the idea. Zhang Yixuan, Deputy Director of the Chongqing Weather Modification Office, addressed the media, clarifying that the strong winds responsible for the storm were a natural convection phenomenon, not a result of artificial rainfall.

“There are definitely strong winds, but this is caused by natural conditions. Artificial rainfall will not cause extreme weather,” Zhang asserted.

The met department predicted heavy rain again late last week, and now residents are forewarning one another to bring in their laundry in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the infamous underwear crisis.

With input from agencies