It was the talk of the town. After the authorities sought to break a long-running heatwave in Chongqing by using cloud-seeding missiles to artificially bring rain, the Chinese megacity was blasted by an unusual weather event – an underwear storm.
Termed “the 9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis”, an unexpected windstorm on Monday brought gusts of up to 76mph (122km/h), scattering people’s laundry from balconies on the city’s high-rises. Douyin, China’s sister app to TikTok, was filled with videos of pants and bras flying through the skies, landing in the street and snagging on trees.
“I just went out and it suddenly started to rain heavily and underwear fell from the sky,” one resident, Ethele, posted on the social media platform Weibo.
“Who’s going to compensate me for my emotional damage?” joked one person who lost their brand new Calvin Klein set.
Another countered: “It’s actually quite romantic. You might even pick up your crush’s underwear while taking a walk on the street.”
One man bereft of his underwear said he was “laughing like crazy” but the rain storm in Chongqing had now turned him into a “lifelong introvert”.
Chongqing and the surrounding region had been sweltering for more than a week in extreme temperatures that had already delayed the return of schools and universities. In an effort to bring down the temperatures and ease drought conditions, last week the authorities turned to cloud-seeding technology, sending almost 200 rockets into the sky. The authorities said it worked, and rain soon arrived. But on Monday, the sudden windstorm hit without warning, and residents linked the two – though this was rejected by the authorities.
Tens of thousands of comments were posted to Weibo, where more than 7 million people viewed the “underwear crisis” hashtag, which became Wednesday’s 11th most popular across China. Another 18 million engaged with a hashtag suggesting “if you think you messed up at work, just think of the Chongqing Meteorological Bureau”.
Zhang Yixuan, the deputy director of the Chongqing Weather Modification Office, defended the government’s work at a press conference on Wednesday. Zhang said the winds, which had also brought down billboards and trees, were a naturally occurring convection, and not caused by the cloud seeding.
“There are definitely strong winds, but this is caused by natural conditions. Artificial rainfall will not cause extreme weather,” Zhang said.
Regardless, the incident has now linked bad weather with flying boxer shorts in the minds of Chongqing residents. Heavy rain was predicted again late last week, with residents warning one another to bring in their laundry to stop a repeat of the underwear crisis.
“The people of Chongqing will never forget this heavy day,” said one.
An employee at a central Chongqing lingerie store told the Guardian that people were not yet rushing in to buy replacements but that it was coincidentally “the season to buy new underwear” so he expected sales to increase anyway.
“[Chongqing people] laugh about it,” he said, “because life is fun.”
