REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PADANG – Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics stated the societies did not need to worry about the equinox phenomenon. The Head of West Java Station Rahmat Triyono said it was routinely happened twice a year, usually on March and September.
“Related to the issue said that the temperature would increase up to 40 degree Celsius, it was not true. There would be an increasing in temperature, but only at maximum 32 up to 36 degree Celsius,” said Rahmat in Padang on Wednesday.
Equinox marked the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator, the imaginary line in the sky above the earth’s equator. At that time the duration of night and noon in all over the world were relatively the same, including the subtropical area in North and South.
The phenomenon did not always followed by an extreme temperature change. Equinox was different to heat wave in Africa and Middle East which followed by an extreme and long temperature change.
The temperature change happened as there was an increasing evaporation process. Data said there was no significant change of temperature during the last five years. The change between 31 up to 32 degree Celsius was happened at about 12.00 pm to 14.00 pm.
The Head of Public Relations of BMKG Ketaping Budi Samiaji said the potency of evaporation in West Sumatra territorial water would increase. There was also an increasing of cumulonimbus in the coastal area.
He said, at the beginning there would be moderate to heavy rain on March 20-23 (2017), especially in the west and mid part of West Sumatra. Data on rain intensity for the last five years showed the average of rainfall was more than 50 millimeter. He added that the high intensity of rain might cause disaster, but it needed to consider other factors, such as tide.