TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Principal Expert Researcher in Climatology and Climate Change from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Erma Yulihastin, suspects that the speed of the strong wind phenomenon in Bandung Regency, West Java on Wednesday afternoon, February 21, 2024, was approaching the minimum threshold for a tornado. The vortex of wind accompanied by rain hit settlements in an area that sliced through two sub-districts, namely Rancaekek and Jatinangor.

"We just thought it was a tornado. This can be called as an unusual event," she said on Wednesday evening.

The expert from the BRIN Center for Climate and Atmospheric Research also said that the wind speed scale for a tornado is at least 67 kilometers per hour, while anything less than that is called a puting beliung in Indonesia. After observing video footage widely circulating on social media, including photos of the damage, the whirlwind was deemed to be at the level of a mini tornado.

According to Erma, the team from BRIN has started researching the strong wind incident in Rancaekek. The research team wants to measure the wind speed based on the available monitoring equipments. The team will also study the exact duration of the tornado. He estimated that the radius of the wind vortex in Rancaekek was around 6 kilometers.

When researching tornadoes in the Cimenyan area, Bandung, in 2019, said Erma, the duration of the strong wind lasted up to half an hour. The wind speed at that time reached 56 kilometers per hour. “The damage was terrible too.”

Head of the Geophysics Station of the Bandung Meteorology, Kimatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Teguh Rahayu, previously stated that the tornado blew away the roofs of Jatinangor residents' houses. The fence of PT Kahatex, a local textile company, also being blewn away. "Extreme rain appears from the radar at the location of the incident," he said.

According to Rahayu, tornadoes are a result of the growth of cumulonimbus clouds. This condition continued into heavy rain accompanied by sudden strong winds.

ANWAR SISWADI

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