South Asian Heat Waves Still Ongoing, Jayapura BBMKG Urges Residents To Stay Alert

Regional V Jayapura BBMKG officers calibrate the BMKG (PHOTO BETWEEN) equipment

JAKARTA - The Center for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BBMKG) Region V Jayapura appealed to people in the area not to panic and remain alert to the hot waves of South Asia which are still ongoing. Head of BBMKG Region V Jayapura Yustus Rumakiek said, since last week until now almost most countries in South Asia are still affected by heatwaves. According to Yustus, meteorological agencies in Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, China, Thailand, and Laos have reported incidents of hot temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius that have been going on in recent days with a new record maximum temperature in their territory. "As reported by the Chinese Meteorology Agency (CMA) which stated that more than 100 weather stations in China recorded the highest temperature in the history of instrument observations for April," he said in a release received by ANTARA in Jayapura, Wednesday, April 26. Furthermore, he said, in Japan "extraordinary heat" was also observed in recent days such as the city of Kumarkhali which is located in Kusthia District. "Meanwhile, Bangladesh is the hottest area with a daily maximum temperature of 51.2 degrees Celsius on April 17, 2023," he said. He explained that apart from that, the 10 hottest cities in Asia occurred, most of them were in Myanmar and India. "And in Indonesia, the daily maximum temperature was recorded at 37.2 degrees Celsius at the BMKG observation station in Ciputat last week, although in general the highest temperatures recorded in several locations are in the range of 34 - 36 degrees Celsius to date," he said. He added that the hot temperature in April 2023 in the Asian region was climatologically influenced by the pseudo-solar motion, but the heat spike in the South Asian sub-continent region. "Indochina and East Asia in 2023 are among the most significant spikes so climate experts conclude that the trend of global warming and climate change that has continued to occur to date has contributed to making heat waves more likely to occur more frequently," said Yustus Rumakiek. Meanwhile, Sub-Coordinator for Services at the MKG Center Region V Jayapura Ezri Ronsumbre said that heat waves only occur in medium to high latitude areas while Indonesia is in the equatorial area or is in the low latitude. According to him, in Papua, from the results of observations of BBMKG Region V Jayapura on April 22, the highest temperature occurred in Sentani City, Jayapura Regency, which was 34.7 degrees Celsius, but the value of the air temperature was still within normal limits.

"In addition, the highest temperature also occurred in Boven Digoel 34.8 degrees while other areas in Papua were normal with a temperature range of 31 degrees Celsius," said Ezri Ronsumbre.