BMKG: 84 Per Cent of West Nusa Tenggara Region Enters Dry Season in April 2026

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has announced that the majority of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) will begin entering the dry season in April 2026. The drought conditions this year are predicted to arrive earlier and have more severe characteristics compared with normal conditions.

Nuga Putrantijo, Head of BMKG’s NTB Climatology Station, explained that approximately 84 per cent of the NTB region will experience a transition from the rainy season that has been underway since October 2025. Specifically, most areas will begin drying from early April.

“Specifically, 74 per cent of seasonal zones will start the dry season in the first ten days of April 2026, or the period from 1 to 10 April,” said Nuga, as reported by Antara on Monday, 9 March.

BMKG analysis shows a shift in timing when compared with climatological data from the 1991-2020 period. Approximately 70 to 73 per cent of the NTB region is predicted to experience an earlier-than-usual onset of the dry season.

Beyond arriving earlier, the intensity of dryness is also predicted to be more extreme. The nature of this year’s dry season is dominated by the Below Normal category, which encompasses 93 to 95 per cent of the NTB region.

“The characteristic of the dry season or dryness level is predicted to fall within the below normal category. This indicates significantly lower rainfall, such that the dry season is expected to be drier compared with previous periods,” Nuga emphasised.

Given the predicted longer and drier drought duration, BMKG has called on all stakeholders and communities to take anticipatory measures immediately. This is important to prevent clean water crises and crop failures in the agricultural sector.

“The dry season duration is drier and longer. We need to anticipate this early so that unexpected disasters do not occur,” he concluded.