TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Rainfall and gloomy skies are expected to persist over Greater Jakarta today, January 29, according to the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). This has been the case since last Saturday.

Erma Yulihastin, a climatology researcher at the Climate and Atmospheric Research Center (BRIN), said the recent weather was attributed to the strengthening winds from the north, which was indicated by heavy downpours in the early morning in Jakarta and its neighbors, viz. Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi.

“There is a role of strengthening winds from the north that intensify the Asian Monsoon as a sign of the rainy season,” she said on Monday, confirming that the monsoon winds have optimal strength to produce persistent rain in the capital city areas.

Erma described the strengthening winds as the Cross Equatorial Northerly Surge (CENS) phenomenon, which is often referred to as the cold snap from Siberia. It could also cause extreme rainfall.

Major flooding in Greater Jakarta, she added, usually occurs after extreme downpours of more than 100 millimeters per day. “The last major flood was in 2020 when the rainfall reached 266 millimeters in one day.”

Erma went on to predict that the rain intensity in Greater Jakarta would increase, possibly reaching 800 millimeters over the next ten days, or until the first week of February. This means that the daily rain intensity could be as high as 80 millimeters, which falls into the heavy rain category of more than 50 millimeters per day. “There could also be extreme rainfall in one single day.”

ZACHARIAS WURAGIL

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