Rainfall From La Niña To Hit Indonesia Hard Until February

The weather pattern La Nina is forecast to be the cause of significant and persistently heavy rainfall across much of the Indonesian archipelago between the autumn, and  February of 2021 reports say.

In reports from Jakarta, the national Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned the population that the ongoing accumulation caused by the La Nina weather phenomenon is expected to increase rainfall across the country by as much as 40%.

Very heavy rainfall is also expected in a number of areas, but not all.

Speaking by way of a written statement at the weekend, the deputy head of the BMKG’s climatology department, said “La Nina (a)ffects different regions in Indonesia differently.”

Through the remainder of this month and into next, all areas of the country can expect heavy rainfall at times with the exception of the island of Sumatra in the west near the Malay peninsula.

Thereafter, between December and stretching into February 2021, the heaviest of the rainfall is expected to move further to the east of the country in the Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku and Papua regions.

La Niña in general is the periodic cooling down of sea-surface temperatures across much of the east-central equatorial Pacific regions – and is often confused with El Niño – in which the opposite effect sees above average sea-surface temperatures periodically developing across the east-central equatorial Pacific.

The statement went on to say that floods and landslides could be caused by the excessive rain, and urged local authorities to implement precautions against such.