Jakarta Often Modified Weather This Month, BMKG Says Residents Don't Need To Worry About Drought

Illustration of drought (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has again carried out a weather modification operation (OMC) for several days in the third week of February 2025.

This OMC has been carried out since February 14 and is planned to take place every day until February 21, 2025. Weather modifications with salt seeding (NaCl) have also been carried out from February 1 to 6.

Plt. Director of Weather Modification Governance of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Budi Harsoyo emphasized that the OMC which took place repeatedly this month would not cause drought.

"So people don't need to worry if during the OMC implementation period, Jakarta becomes a drought, as many people think that it is still wrong to judge at this time," Budi said in his statement, Monday, February 17.

Budi explained that the purpose of OMC in Jakarta this time is to reduce weather extremities, which if not anticipated, have the potential to cause flooding.

Bearing in mind, the potential for light to moderate rain occurs in the morning until noon in parts of DKI Jakarta recently.

The potential for rain cloud growth in Banten, Jakarta and West Java in general has high potential. The prediction of humidity in each layer is quite humid, reaching 100 percent," explained Budi.

On the other hand, if the rainfall is predicted to be normal, then we will let the cloud cells become rainy over the Jakarta area.

"We have a threshold for the intensity of rainfall that can cause flooding in the Jakarta area, if the intensity of rainfall is above 50 mm/day," explained Budi.

"Therefore, if from the prediction it is detected that there will be rain events with an intensity of more than 50 mm/day, we will anticipate the meaning of the seeding," he added.