TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) announced that it had intensified its weather modification operations following the official stormy forecast over the Jakarta Greater Area (Jabodetabek) by the Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

The head of BPPT’s weather modification team, Tri Handoko Seto, augured the storm would last longer to January 25, compared to BMKG’s initial forecast from January 17-23, 2020.

“We do hope people would not panic, but we must stay alert for a possible extreme rainy situation. We will maximize the weather modification operations (TMC),” said Tri Handoko in a written statement on Monday.

Tri explained that the team’s monitoring of the growth and migration of clouds was already expected to move in over the Jakarta Greater Area since late last night. He suggested the cloud-seeding process would be placed over those clouds.

“The said clouds are usually still over the Java Sea, the Sunda Strait, and areas over Ujung Kulon. [The seeding] will be applied, which will force the rain to fall before it reaches the Jakarta Greater Area,” said Tri.

In an attempt to prevent flooding, BPPT’s weather modification team has conducted 4-5 cloud-seeding cycles in a day. This is in contrast with the 2-cycle cloud-seeding a day that is usually practiced to tackle forest fires.

ADAM PRIREZA