Over Six Thousand Lightning Strikes Hit West Java's Cianjur in July

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) of Bandung said Cianjur and Sukabumi were areas in West Java susceptible to lightning strikes, with the former recording 6,239 lightning strikes in July. The agency explained the topography and terrain of the two areas contributed to the "cloud to ground" (CG) lightning strikes. 

The agency also revealed there were 23,849 cloud to ground lightning strikes in West Java province and 56 percent of them consisted of negative CG while the other 44 percent were positive CG.

“Sukabumi city was the region that recorded the highest lightning strike density,” Bandung BMKG head Teguh Rahayu wrote in a statement on August 8.

With a total 4,145.7 square kilometers of land space, the lightning strike density in Sukabumi was 1.48, West Bandung regency (3,741), Bandung (1,292), and Subang (1,078). The types of lightning strike that struck the regions ranged from cloud to ground, cloud to cloud, intra cloud, and cloud to air.

This was achieved by collecting the data from the sensors of the Direction Finding Antenna that detected electromagnetic waves between 10kHz-200kHz created by lightnings within the 111 kilometer distance.

The signals received by the sensors were then analyzed by the PCI Card storm tracker to differentiate the types of lightning strike that were then analyzed by a program called NEXSTORM. 

Read: Bandung BMKG Warns of Active Earthquake Faults in West Java

ANWAR SISWADI