Agency forecasts rain for October
Agency forecasts rain for October
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is forecast to have its hottest day on
Sept. 22 this year but long-awaited rains are expected to pour in
many parts of the country in October and November, the
Meteorology and Geophysics Agency announced yesterday.
The head of the agency, Sri Diharto, urged people to prepare
for a possible average air temperature of 37 degrees Celsius on
Sept. 22 when the sun will be directly over the equator.
"The day will be hot and dry, and fires will easily ignite,"
Diharto said in a press conference after launching the agency's
latest weather forecast at his office.
Rains are expected soon in Bengkalis, Riau province, gradually
spreading across the western parts of Indonesia, including
Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan, between next month and December.
The agency monitors weather conditions through more than 5,000
weather stations across the country. Diharto said Bengkalis was
the only one of the country's 102 monitored regions expected to
receive rainfall in September.
Another 90 regions can expect rain next month and November,
while the remaining 11 regions will have rain in December.
"For almost every region in Java, except for those on the
northern coast, the rain will come late," Diharto said, adding
that rain would also arrive late in the rice-producing area of
South Sulawesi.
Diharto attributed the prolonged dry season to El Nio, an
abnormal weather pattern in the tropical Pacific, which many
climatologists believe has caused devastating weather conditions
over the past 50 years.
El Nio has been blamed for exceptionally warm and long-lived
ocean currents, disrupted global rainfall and wind patterns, and
droughts and floods in many regions of the world.
Diharto said this year's rainy season would almost be normal.
Seventeen regions are forecast to have above average rains this
season while 24 others will have below average rains.
"We'll be happy if everything is normal. 'Above average' means
we'll have to prepare for floods, while 'below average' means
we'll have a dry rainy season," he said. (aan)