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)