Rainy season starts for real in Jakarta

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Having endured hot days for the last two weeks due to clouds over the South China Sea blocking the air mass that was to have brought rain to Java, Jakartans have been experiencing rainy days since Tuesday.

"For the next six days, Jakarta will experience rain of an intensity mostly from light to medium," said Achmad Zakir, chief of the weather forecast division at the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency (BMG), on Wednesday.

He said that spells of heavy rain would be interspersed with intervals of light and medium rain, although only for short durations, such as an hour. He added that the sun would still shine through for certain periods, mostly in the mornings.

Zakir said that this week the rain would be accompanied by lightning and strong winds.

He also rejected the possibility of an early dry season. "There have been no major occurrences to cause serious distortions to the weather patterns, so the rainy season is coming."

"The rains have started to fall and will continue until they reach their peak in February," he said.

So Jakartans, especially those who live in flood prone areas, are advised to remain alert for the possibility of flooding.

Particularly because Bogor, West Java, is expected to experience heavy rains early next month.

"Over these past few days Bogor has suffered scorching heat. According to our records, on Monday, Jan. 20, the highest recorded temperature was 34.6 Celsius. However, we have forecast that heavy rains will fall in Bogor in early February," said Widiastuti, chief of the climatology station at the Bogor office of the BMG.

Because numerous rivers originating in Bogor flow through Jakarta, heavy rain there usually causes floods in several areas of Jakarta, especially those near the rivers.