T

he National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has warned that even though it is the dry season in Indonesia, some areas would face floods due to Typhoon Neoguri sweeping through the Pacific Ocean.

BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that Typhoon Neoguri in the eastern part of the Philippines would cause winds to blow from Japan to Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Typhoon Neoguri, or known in the Philippines as Typhoon Florita, was a weak tropical disturbance formed on June 30 that rapidly intensified due to warm-sea temperatures and convection.

The United States-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center upgraded Typhoon Neoguri'€™s status to category 4, meaning it has winds of at least 249 kilometers per hour (kph) as the typhoon'€™s eye developed clearly on July 5.

Neoguri, known as the strongest typhoon so far in the 2014 Western Pacific season, hit mainland Japan on Thursday, after scouring Okinawa with torrential rain and hurricane-force winds.

According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, Neoguri'€™s center made landfall near the city of Akune in Kagoshima Prefecture just before 7 a.m. Japanese time Thursday. Akune is on the west coast of Kyushu, the southwesternmost of Japan'€™s four main islands.

Maximum 10-minute sustained winds were estimated at 97 kph at the time of landfall, equivalent to maximum winds of 105 to 113 kph.

Neoguri has been reported to continue to weaken as it interacts with the jet stream coming off northern China and the Korean Peninsula. These upper-level winds have also turned Neoguri sharply east-northeast into the Japanese mainland.

Sutopo said that the condition would also result in some areas in Sumatra, Kalimantan, western Java Island and Papua experiencing heavy rainfall this week because of high humidity.

'€œHigh humidity will create cumulonimbus or rain clouds in those areas,'€ Sutopo told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He added that people should anticipate a brief periods of rain in areas prone to flooding.

He said that although many areas in the country would experience heavy rainfall this week amid the dry season, several areas '€” Central Java, East Java, Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara '€” would remain dry.

Previously, reports showed that the El Niño phenomenon was predicted to arrive in the country'€™s eastern regions this month.

Sutopo said El Niño would not have a strong impact because of heavy rain.

He said that the Typhoon Neoguri had caused widespread rain in the country, from Sumatra Island and western Java to Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.

He said this week'€™s widespread rain was caused by several aspects '€” warm sea temperatures, light, hot wind from the northern Australian monsoon, negative dipole mode events and Typhoon Neoguri.

According to BNPB data, natural disasters caused financial losses of Rp 133.7 trillion (US$11.7 billion) from 2004 to 2013.

In Jakarta, annual floods of varying intensity had caused financial losses, such as in 2007 when floods resulted in financial losses of Rp 5.18 trillion.

In 2012, floods and whirlwinds in several regions caused Rp 30 trillion in financial losses. (put)