In the coming days, the public needs to be aware of the potential for heavy rains, strong winds, floods, landslides and falling trees.
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ANTARA FOTO/Ahmad Subaidi
Airport staff continue their work amid heavy rain and strong winds that hit Lombok International Airport (LIA) in Praya, Central Lombok, NTB, on Sunday, Nov. 19. The Lombok International Airport Meteorology Station said that NTB could expect in next three days to see mild to heavy rains with thunder and strong winds in the afternoons across Lombok Island, West Sumbawa, Dompu and Bima. People are urged to remain alert and cautious.
In anticipation of extreme weather in the coming days, the public needs to be aware of the potential for heavy rains, strong winds, floods, landslides and falling trees.
Natural disasters have impacted several places recently. On Wednesday (22/11), landslides blocked a railway track in Malangbong, Garut regency, West Java, while tornadoes damaged 661 houses in Sidoarjo regency in East Java.
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, floods also affected 15 villages in four districts in East Lombok on Saturday (18/11) evening. Two people were killed and 367 houses were damaged.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said the regions that needed to be aware of the coming extreme weather were Sumatra, Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua. Likewise the Nias and Mentawai Islands, which are prone to high tides in the western waters.
Extreme weather often occurs during the transition between seasons. However, in recent times, the formation of cumulus – with a peak of 1,500-5,000 meters tall – has increasingly become cumulonimbus with a height of 18,000 meters. Cumulus results in rain while cumulonimbus becomes heavy rain with lightning and strong winds.
Cumulonimbus is formed by solar heat. The wider an open area the bigger the formation of cumulonimbus. Ironically, development in Indonesia has seen the clearing of forests and the conversion of green spaces in urban areas into concrete, thus intensifying heat and the formation of cumulonimbus.
Jakarta, for example, had only 2,452 hectares of green space in 2016, only 3.7 percent of the city’s total area. That number is far from the 30 percent of green space mandated in Law No 26/2007 on spatial planning.
In the bigger context, Indonesia has lost 684,000 hectares of forest per year because of illegal logging, forest fires and land transformation. According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment, during 2010-2015 period, the speed of deforestation in Indonesia was the fastest in the world.
Therefore, efforts to minimize extreme weather can actually be carried out. However, because of the difficulty of environment restoration and the long time it will take the government must find ways to mitigate disasters to minimize their impacts.
Mapping out landslide-prone areas is among the possible strategies. Another strategy is to identify and to inform people in areas prone to strong winds and tornados, as well to detect the formation of cumulonimbus using available technology.
