Hot weather a natural phenomenon during transition period: BMG

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For Nurzaman, a driver on the Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, to Pulogadung, East Jakarta, bus route, the hotter daytime temperatures in the last few days have made him suffer a headache.

"I had to take a rest for nearly three hours before I could work again on Tuesday. My head was hurting due to the hot weather," he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Nurzaman's complaint was also experienced by many Jakartans. Passengers of non-air-conditioned vehicles and people working in non-air-conditioned buildings have to suffer the most.

A Meteorological and Geophysical Agency (BMG) weather forecaster, Kasabarno, revealed that the hot weather was a natural phenomenon that occurred during the transition from the rainy to the dry season.

He explained that the hotter temperature in the capital and other parts of Java was due to clouds, called the inversion layer, lingering two to three kilometers above the earth.

"Heat received by the earth from the sun cannot be reflected back to the atmosphere as it is obstructed by the inversion layer. Consequently, we have all felt very hot just recently," he said.

"The layer will disappear when the dry season has arrived properly, around mid-May."

Daytime temperatures in Jakarta reached 33 degrees Celsius (C) over the last few days, falling to 27 degrees C at night.

Usually, the daytime temperature only reaches 30 degrees C.

Bidawi Hasyim of the National Space and Aeronautics Agency (LAPAN) agreed with Kasabarno's statement, saying that 33 degrees C was nearly the upper extreme for temperatures in Jakarta, which range from 24 degree C to 34 degrees C.

"The recent hotter temperatures indicate the transition from the rainy to the dry season. There is nothing unusual about that," said the head of LAPAN's center for utilization and development of telemonitoring.

Kasabarno said that showers might still drench Jakarta, according to the latest report dated April 28, in which the weather above the sea surface still showed a positive anomaly.

"A positive anomaly indicates that the rainy season has yet to end completely," he said, adding that rainfall in Jakarta in the next 10 days could total 40 millimeters (mm).

A 40 mm downpour in Cipete, South Jakarta, and Ciledug, Tangerang, is categorized as medium (20 mm to 50 mm). Other categories are very light (0.1mm to 5 mm), light (5mm to 20 mm), high (50mm to 100 mm) and very high (over 100 mm).