Rainy season should start in October, weather agency says

Rainy season should start in October, weather agency says

JAKARTA (JP): With the weather in Indonesia settling into its
normal pattern starting this month, this year's wet season should
begin in October, the state Meteorology and Geophysics Agency
(BMG) said on Tuesday.

"The planting season this year will be supported by rain.
There should be a good harvest for farmers," BMG head Sri Diharto
told reporters after an inauguration of the agency's new
operational center in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, by Vice
President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Sri Diharto said La Nina, a freak weather phenomena which hit
Indonesia and caused heavy rains during the present dry season,
had disappeared and the weather in most parts of the country had
settled into its normal pattern since this month.

He said that based on cloud conditions observed by the agency
and the movement of the sun, the temperature in most parts of
Indonesia would drop between September and December.

The wet season, he said, would continue until a drought began
in March.

Areas lying along the equator, such as West Kalimantan, West
Sumatra and Riau, however, would receive much more rainfall
throughout the year, he said.

Sri Diharto warned that El Nino, a freak weather phenomena
which caused severe drought across Indonesia and the region in
1997, would return next year, albeit in a milder form.

Besides causing massive harvest failures, El Nino, which means
"the boy" in Spanish, also led to extensive forest fires in
Sumatra and Kalimantan.

He predicted that the condition in 2001 would not be as
serious as in 1997.

"This will be a soft El Nino which should not cause too much
trouble," Diharto predicted. (01)