Friday: BMKG Warns of Light to Heavy Rain in Most Indonesian Cities

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG) has issued an early warning for the potential of light, moderate, to heavy rain, which may be accompanied by lightning and strong winds in several major cities in Indonesia on Friday.

Quoted from the official BMKG website in Jakarta, forecaster Ranika explained that, in general, the convergence area extends across the southwestern Indian Ocean of Banten, the northeastern Pacific Ocean of Papua, the southern Indian Ocean from West Java to the southern coast of the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY), the southern coast of Sumbawa Island to Sawu, the Flores Sea and the Arafura Sea.

These conditions can increase the potential for the growth of rain clouds along the areas traversed by the convergence or confluence.

Meanwhile, several other major cities will experience light to moderate rain, namely Medan, Tanjung Pinang, Pangkal Pinang, Palembang, Bengkulu, Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Palangka Raya, Samarinda, Banjarmasin, Mataram, Kupang, Kendari, Palu, Gorontalo, Manado, Ternate, Sorong, Manokwari, Nabire, and Jayawijaya.

Several other major cities are forecast to only experience cloudy conditions today, including Pekanbaru, Jambi, Serang, Pontianak, Ambon, and Jayapura.

Director of Maritime Meteorology at BMKG, Eko Prasetyo, in a statement said that the early warning was issued as a mitigation step to minimise the risk of maritime accidents due to increased wave height.

According to him, waves as high as 2.50-4.0 meters are likely to occur in the waters of the southern Indian Ocean of West Java, Central Java, the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY), East Java, Bali, NTB to East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).