Acting Governor Of DKI Appreciates The Success Of Weather Modification During The New Year, Encourages Flood Anticipation Development

Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Teguh Setyabudi (Diah Ayu/VOI)

JAKARTA - Jakarta is not hit by rain that has the potential to cause flooding during the 2025 New Year's Eve celebrations. Acting (Pj) Governor of DKI Jakarta Teguh Setyabudi said this condition was influenced by the operation to modify the weather (OMC) which was carried out intensively during the period 25-31 December 2024.

During the six days of implementation, the weather modifications involved a total of 10 flight sorties with a duration of 19 hours 36 minutes. As many as 8,000 kilograms of material semai NaCl were used for cloud seeding.

"Although there were no flight activities on December 27, the results achieved during this period showed a significant decline in rainfall," Teguh said in his statement, Thursday, January 2.

Teguh said, OMC efforts by the government to increase public resilience and safety against disasters, especially hydrometeorological disasters such as floods and landslides.

He hopes that the weather modification technology can be developed. Because, according to him, this is a significant achievement in efforts to mitigate hydrometeorological disasters in the Jakarta area.

"Hopefully, this success can be the first step in developing more effective weather modification technology in the future," said Teguh.

For the record, the actual rain data obtained from the Global Stellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) satellite shows that rainfall in Jakarta during the OMC period ranges from 0 to 40 mm/day, with the peak rainfall reaching 40 mm/day on December 25, 2024.

"Before the OMC implementation, rainfall was recorded at 17.8 millimeters on December 24, 2024. During OMC, the maximum rainfall was recorded at 68 millimeters, without rainfall exceeding 100 millimeters," he explained.

The results of the OMC analysis, he continued, showed success in reducing the intensity of rain by 38 percent from predictions based on GSMap data, as well as 28 percent of the Global Forecast System (GFS) prediction of actual rainfall countering data.

Previously, the DKI Provincial Government had held OMC on December 7-9 and December 12-15, 2024. The two OMC stages that had been implemented showed positive results, with a reduction in the intensity of rain reaching 20 percent.