Warning of Thunderstorms Across Several Indonesian Cities
The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has released an early national weather warning for Sunday (19/7/2026). The public in several major Indonesian cities is urged to increase preparedness for potential heavy rain that may be accompanied by lightning.
BMKG forecaster Vita stressed that residents in affected areas must be aware of secondary impacts that could be triggered by the extreme weather, such as flooding, strong winds, and landslides.
“For the western part of Indonesia, there is a potential for thunderstorms in the Pekanbaru and Tanjung Selor areas,” Vita said in a weather forecast broadcast followed from Jakarta on Sunday morning.
In addition to these two regions, BMKG is paying special attention to the provinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra, and South Sulawesi. Residents in these three provinces are asked to raise their level of vigilance due to the potential for heavy to very heavy rainfall.
Vita explained that the threat of severe weather in several major cities is triggered by strong atmospheric dynamics, specifically the formation of areas of wind speed slowdown or convergence. This convergence belt is observed to be extending and triggering massive convective cloud growth.
“These atmospheric conditions can significantly increase the potential for rain cloud growth along the convergence area,” Vita stated.
In general, BMKG divides today’s weather projection into two regional characteristics. Beyond the extreme condition points, moderate to light intensity rain is still forecast to wet several major cities such as Padang, Medan, Tanjung Pinang, Bengkulu, Palembang, and Pontianak.
Good news comes from the eastern region where the intensity of extreme weather tends to subside. Cities such as Makassar, Denpasar, Mataram, Kupang, and Jayapura are generally predicted to only experience sunny cloudy to thick cloudy conditions.
However, the potential for light intensity rain is still reported to have a chance of falling evenly in several other eastern regions such as Palu, Mamuju, Kendari, Sorong, Manokwari, and Merauke.