BMKG Forecast, Heavy Rain To Extreme Weather Ahead Of Nataru

BMKG Deputy for Meteorology Nursodik Gunarjo. (Rana VOI)

JAKARTA Christmas and New Year (Nataru) is the right moment to vacation with family. During this long holiday, the travel rate or return home became quite high.

Given that Indonesia has entered the rainy season, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has shared weather prospects so that people can anticipate areas that are likely to rain.

Deputy for Meteorology of BMKG, Nursodik Gunarjo, divided the weather prospects for three periods, namely before Nataru, during Nataru, and after Nataru. These three periods are again divided into two categories, namely heavy rain and moderate rain.

Before Nataru, from 19 to 24 December, heavy rains will occur in Aceh, North Sumatra, Kep. Bangka Belitung, West Java, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and Papua. The area that only experienced moderate rain was South Sulawesi.

Next, the areas that will rain heavily from December 25 to January 1 are West Sumatra, Riau Islands, Bengkulu, Bangka Belitung Islands, Central Java, East Java, and East Nusa Tenggara. For areas that only experience moderate rain during the Nataru period, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, West Papua, and Papua.

Next, in the period after Nataru from January 2 to 6, areas that still experience heavy rain are West Sumatra, Riau Islands, and Central Java. Areas that only experienced moderate rain were NTT, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, and Papua.

Of all these weather conditions, Gunarjo said that the rainy season in Indonesia has only entered 42 percent. This rainy season will continue from December to February next year. The peak of the rain is at 55 percent in January and February.

"We also see that there are ones one to five days, while some days without rain (HTH) are in the extreme category for more than 60 days. Those are some indicators or forecasts or observations made by BMKG," Gunarjo said at the Press Conference on Friday, December 22.

Based on this weather forecast, Gunarjo appealed to the public that the potential for extreme weather will increase and need to be avoided. What's more, high rainfall can bring unwanted disasters.

Heavy rain to extreme accompanied by lightning and thunder, then and strong winds. In addition, there are high waves and tidal floods, as well as ups and downs that have the potential to occur during the Nataru period," he explained.

Gunarjo reminded that the public must always follow the development of weather information directly from the BMKG platform and social media. While monitoring weather forecasts from them, BMKG will try to prevent disasters due to rainfall.

"As a mitigation measure, we are preventing the risk of geohydrometeorological disasters. The public and stakeholders must always update the development of information from the BMKG so that they can be informed which areas are experiencing a vulnerability," concluded Gunarjo.