uthorities have sounded the alarm about heavy rain that is expected to hit Jakarta on Wednesday, amid a wider threat of extreme weather that still looms over numerous provinces across the country this week and at least until Jan. 2.
Erma Yulihastin, a researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency’s (BRIN) Center for Climate and Atmosphere, warned on Monday that residents of Greater Jakarta, particularly those living in Banten’s Tangerang regency, should be wary of “extreme rain” and “heavy storms” on Wednesday.
These storms, according to Erma, would originate at sea but would move inland driven by westerly winds and the cross-equatorial northerly surge (CENS).
“As such, Banten [province] and Jakarta [and its satellite city of] Bekasi will be the central locations where the storms will strike, starting from noon until evening on Dec. 28, 2022,” Erma wrote on her Twitter account. She added that heavy rain was likely to spread to other areas in West Java.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) refuted Erma’s claims of “heavy storms” but said that the Greater Jakarta area remained at risk from extreme weather in the coming days.
“The terminology for storm, more or less means a tropical cyclone [that must include] strong winds that cause heavy rain. [A potential for storms] has been detected in the northern part of Papua,” Dwikorita told a press conference on Tuesday.
“When we are talking about extreme rain, it does not have to be a storm […] The trend for extreme rain has been on the rise since Dec. 21, and will continue to do so until Dec. 29,” she said, referring to a similar warning for extreme weather issued by the BMKG on Dec. 21.
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