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Windy weather blows warning to Jakartans
Windy spell: A man inspects a billboard at Gading Serpong Tangerang after it collapsed during a storm on Sunday
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span class="inline inline-center">Windy spell: A man inspects a billboard at Gading Serpong Tangerang after it collapsed during a storm on Sunday. The air temperature in Greater Jakarta was estimated at 23 to 31 degrees Celsius with humidity of 60 to 100 percent.(JP/Donny Fernando)
Residents have been urged to be more careful of strong winds that have hit Greater Jakarta this month as the damaging impact of the winds, predicted to last until February, has toppled trees and billboards in public areas.
In Poris, Tangerang, a billboard collapsed on Sunday at around 1:25 p.m. following winds and heavy rainfall in the area. No fatalities were reported but the incident disrupted traffic.
“The recent strong winds were caused by cumulonimbus clouds, which lately have appeared in Greater Jakarta’s skies since the start of the wet season,” said the Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) meteorology division deputy Yunus S. Swarinoto on Sunday.
Cumulonimbus clouds, which consist of ice and water, cause high intensity rains that can trigger winds strong enough to take down rooftops, trees or billboards.
The winds have been part of an anomaly triggered by unstable atmospheric conditions in the extreme weather that has been ongoing since November. According to the BMKG’s predictions, these conditions will lead to increasingly intense thunderstorms until the end of November or beginning of December.
Aside from the strong winds and heavy rains, cumulonimbus clouds can potentially trigger thunderstorms, tornadoes and low temperature rains.
The strong winds and cloudburst amid the rainy season, Yunus said, will likely last until February next year before gradually disappearing at the end of the month, or the beginning of the dry season.
He advised residents in Greater Jakarta to always be on alert, especially when passing trees during the strong winds, and to anticipate any possible disasters, such as floods, landslides and fallen trees, given the current weather phenomena.
Meanwhile, Jakarta’s Parks and Cemeteries Agency head Djafar Muchlisin said hundreds of trees had been knocked down as a result of the strong winds.
The winds uprooted at least 102 trees in the capital on Saturday alone, he said without giving further details on how many trees had collapsed in the rainy season so far.
He further said that to anticipate similar incidents, as well as to avoid fatalities, the agency regularly trimmed thick trees in the city after carrying out regular check-ups on them.
“We have also cut down several trees that were found rotten,” said Djafar, adding that even though there were no human casualties, the fallen trees damaged Transjakarta bus stops and several cars.
Jakarta’s acting governor Sumarsono said last month the administration provided insurance for private property, such as cars, damaged by trees belonging to the administration.
The administration will provide Rp 15 million (US$1,114) in compensation for any damaged cars and Rp 50 million for any casualties.
Strong winds also caused a dome of Ar-Rahmah Mosque in Cipinang Muara, East Jakarta, to collapse on a nearby house on Saturday afternoon. No casualties were reported.
On the same day, traffic at Soekarno-Hatta International airport was disrupted after a billboard and several street signs collapsed in the area. Officials managed to remove the fallen billboards late afternoon.
The Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency has a hotline service at 112 and accepts any disaster-related emergency calls.
