BMKG Reminds Jayawijaya Residents To Stay Alert To Extreme Weather

WAMENA - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency through the Wamena Class III Meteorological Station reminded residents of Jayawijaya Regency, Papua Mountains to remain aware of extreme weather over the next week.

Head of the Class III Wamena Subahari Meteorological Station through Weather Forecaster Raka Bagas Wicaksono in Wamena, Saturday said extreme weather would still occur in the next week so that residents in 40 districts of Jayawijaya Regency would remain vigilant.

"In the next week, it is possible that there will still be light to heavy rain, so people in 40 Jayawijaya districts, especially 21 districts along the Baliem River, will remain vigilant," he said.

According to him, extreme weather in the last few days caused 34 districts in Jayawijaya Regency to be affected by floods and landslides, so people had to evacuate because of the disaster.

Based on the analysis of atmospheric phenomena of various scales, namely global, regional and local, it shows that there is still a high enough potential for rain with moderate to heavy intensity throughout the Papua Province of the Mountains for the next seven days.

"For the next seven days, moderate to heavy rain will still occur so that people are expected to remain vigilant so that unwanted things don't happen," he said.

According to him, the weather that occurs in Jayawijaya Regency or Papua Mountains in general cannot be separated from other factors, namely global, regional and local factors.

"There are several global scale factors, the region that can currently affect the weather in Jayawijaya Regency, so that there is an increase in rainfall, including El Nino, which is currently in the neutral phase and does not contribute to the increase in cloud freezing in the Papua Mountains region," he said.

He explained that apart from the Madden-Julian (MJO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) oscillations, they are currently in the neutral phase and do not contribute significantly to the formation of rain clouds.

"Currently, there are tropical cyclone seeds in South Papua close to the Australian Continent. This 97S cyclone bibit causes the formation of a wind spin pattern in southern Papua, causing a slowdown in wind in the Papua region, especially the Papua Mountains," he said.

He added that this would trigger an increase in the growth of rain clouds which could cause moderate to heavy rain in recent days and the impact could be felt in Jayawijaya Regency, Papua Mountains in general.

"This tropical cyclone's contribution is very significant to the increase in convective cloud growth which causes moderate to heavy rain," he said.