Beware of Extreme Weather! Heavy Rain with Lightning Hits Major Cities This Wednesday

JAKARTA - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) issued an early warning in the form of the potential for light, moderate, and heavy rain, which may be accompanied by lightning and strong winds in various major cities in Indonesia on Wednesday, January 14.

Quoted from the BMKG official website, as reported by Antara Jakarta, Yuyun's prakirawan explained in general that the convergence area extends from the waters south of Java Island to West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), the western waters of Aceh, most of Aceh to North Sumatra, and the eastern coast of Papua.

This condition is able to increase the potential for rain cloud growth along the areas that are passed by convergence or confluence.

Therefore, his party estimates that several major cities will have the potential to experience moderate to heavy rain accompanied by lightning and strong winds, namely the Pangkal Pinang, Bandar Lampung, Yogyakarta, Tanjung Selor, Kupang, Ternate, Jayapura, Jayawijaya, and Merauke regions.

Meanwhile, several other major cities will experience light to moderate rain, namely the Pekanbaru, Bengkulu, Tanjung Pinang, Serang, Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Palangkaraya, Samarinda, Mataram, Mamuju, Gorontalo, Kendari, Palu, Sorong, and Manokwari regions.

Several other major cities are expected to experience cloudy conditions today, including the Banda Aceh, Medan, Padang, Jambi, Palembang, Pontianak, Banjarmasin, Denpasar, Makassar, Manado, Ambon, and Nabire regions.

Previously on Tuesday, January 13, the BMKG detected the emergence of a low pressure center in the Indian Ocean south of NTB which has the potential to cause extreme weather phenomena in the next few days.

"We appeal to the public to be aware of the potential for heavy rain that may be accompanied by lightning and strong winds, and to be aware of sea waves that reach two meters or more," said the Head of the BMKG NTB Meteorological Station, Satria Topan Primadi in Mataram, Tuesday.

The analysis of the physical conditions and atmospheric dynamics carried out by BMKG revealed that the presence of a low pressure center was able to trigger significant growth of rain clouds.

Surface winds in the NTB region blow with a dominant variation direction of southwest to northwest with a maximum wind speed of 35 kilometers per hour.