BMG warns of future small-scale storms

JAKARTA (JP): Head of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) Sri Diharto warned on Monday about the possibility of Indonesia, including the capital, being hit by localized small- scale storms in the near future.

The storms will result from larger tropical storms which usually hit Australia in January to February every year, he said.

"But we don't need to worry about it because the storms will not be too powerful here. They usually only have a diameter of 10 to 50 meters and travel for five kilometers at the most," he said.

By comparison, large storms can sweep over areas of between 100 kilometers and 500 kilometers, he said.

Diharto also said that Indonesia did not lie in an area prone to large-scale storms.

Referring to an International Research Institute report released on Nov. 17, Diharto said that the La Nia weather phenomenon had "matured", as could be seen from the cooler sea temperatures off the coast of Ecuador.

He urged people not to panic, saying that "the impact won't be felt drastically here because La Nia is a global weather phenomenon".

Greater Jakarta experienced heavy rainfall on Monday after weeks of extreme heat, the BMG said.

The head of the agency's public relations division, Waantarmin, said that rains were now expected to continue right up until the end of the rainy season in March next year.

"For the next five months, greater Jakarta should receive quite high rainfall. But the weather will fluctuate and sometimes there will be days without rain," he said.

He explained that the weather would be determined by wind speeds between the heights of 5,000 feet and 15,000 feet.

"If winds at that height are over 20,000 knots per hour then there will be no rain because clouds will not be able to build up," he said.

Waantarmin also said rainfall would peak between January and February next year, when the heaviest rains are commonly recorded on the island of Java.

He did not issue more specific information on areas that will be affected, saying: "It is too unpredictable and usually varies from area to area." (ind)