Indonesia developed a tornado early warning system

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and Indonesia's Meteorological, Climate and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) are working together to develop an early warning system for tornadoes, for forecasting and minimizing damage caused by natural disasters.

The BNPB spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said the forecast of tornadoes was more difficult than forecasting tropical storms. The reason is that tornadoes often happen quickly and in a short time (usually 5-10 minutes) and are local, while tropical storms, which occur on a large scale, last for many days and have It is easy to identify the path and detect it from the satellite.

Whirlwinds do not cause great damage like storms, but because Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, stretching along the 'Ring of Fire' in the Pacific Ocean, where earthquakes often occur. In addition, due to an increasingly unusual climate change, the frequency of tornadoes as well as human and cyclone damage in Indonesia is not small and increasing.

BNBP said, most recently, the tornado occurred on April 5 in Serdang Bedagai, North Sumatra province, injuring many people. On the same day, tornadoes spilled many houses in the village of Cilacap, Central Java province, and four villages of Sleman district in Yogyakarta.

According to Mr. Nugroho, the cooperation between the BNPB and BMKG allows both agencies to use BMKG's weather radar network, located at most airports in the country, to determine the conditions of risk created. tornado.

In addition, the two agencies also strengthen cooperation with foreign partners, apply the achievements of information technology and advanced forecasting methods to bring early warning system of tornadoes into operation. , as well as improve the forecasting efficiency of disaster warning system.