BMKG: Most major cities to experience cloudy skies and light rain on Wednesday

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has issued an early warning for potential light, moderate, and heavy rain accompanied by lightning and strong winds in various major cities across Indonesia on Wednesday. According to the BMKG’s official website, forecaster Alya Sausan explained that a convergence zone extends across the North Pacific Ocean off Papua, the waters west of Lampung, from Bengkulu to the waters west of Bengkulu, and from Central Sulawesi to West Sulawesi. As a result, the agency predicts several major cities are at risk of moderate to very heavy rain with lightning and strong winds, including Jambi, Tanjung Selor, and Merauke. Meanwhile, other major cities are expected to experience light to moderate rain, such as Medan, Padang, Pekanbaru, Tanjung Pinang, Bengkulu, Palembang, Pangkalpinang, Bandar Lampung, Jakarta, Serang, Bandung, Semarang, Denpasar, Mataram, Mamuju, Palu, Ambon, Manokwari, Nabire, Jayapura, and Jayawijaya. Cities forecast to only experience cloudy conditions today include Banda Aceh, Yogyakarta, Banjarmasin, Samarinda, Pontianak, Kupang, Makassar, Kendari, Gorontalo, Manado, and Ternate. Previously on Tuesday, the BMKG reminded the public to remain vigilant for potential rain that could cause flooding and landslides in parts of North Sumatra on Wednesday. A forecaster from the BMKG Regional Office I, Endah Paramitha, stated that people should be aware of potential rain accompanied by lightning and strong winds on the western and eastern slopes of North Sumatra, which could trigger disasters such as floods and landslides. The BMKG noted that atmospheric instability in the North Sumatra region is observed to be quite labile, supporting convective processes and the formation of localised rain clouds.