Papua's Tembagapura Sees Rare Snowfall; BMKG Explains
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26 July 2023 19:34 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jayapura - Rare snowfall surprised residents of Tembagapura, Mimika Regency of Central Papua on Sunday, July 23, 2023. The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Center (BMKG) of Region V Jayapura explained that it was the impact of the ongoing rainy season.
A weather forecaster Septiana Monicasari in Jayapura said on Wednesday, July 26, that the rainy season was expected to last until August 2023, rising the potential growth of rain clouds.
Septiana confirmed that snow covered Tembagapura on Sunday, a rare phenomenon in tropical Indonesia.
Snow is clusters of ice crystals falling from a cloud. The ice crystals, she said, can be formed if the atmospheric temperature is below the freezing point of 0 degrees Celsius. Generally, they can fall to the earth's surface in the form of snow if the ground temperature is less than 5 degrees Celsius.
Highly humid air is also among the factors for the formation of snow. Clouds producing snow are Nimbostratus clouds. Septiana said they are different from Cumulonimbus clouds which can cause extremely heavy rain and hail.
Tembagapura is a fairly high area of approximately 2,500 meters above sea level, so the air temperature is quite cold. “That's why snow and hail can fall in Tembagapura,” Septiana concluded.
Mimika Police Chief Adj. Comr. I Gede Putra said that the snowfall in Tembagapura, the operational area of the gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, only lasted a few hours.
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