BMKG and WMO cooperate to enhance severe weather forecasting in the South East Asia – Oceania region
Increasing severe weather events in the South East Asia Oceania have had severe impact on lives and livelihoods. Cooperation and collaboration amongst countries in the region for severe weather forecasts and warnings will strengthen disaster risk reduction and increase resilience
Jakarta – Weather knows no borders and national weather services from across the region have agreed to collaborate more closely, sending representatives at meetings organized by the World Meteorological Organization in Jakarta this week, hosted by Indonesia’s Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG).
Representatives from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, as well as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have discussed common severe weather features they face, identified requirements for a collaborative sub-regional approach and provided practical recommendations for implementation of joint work in the very near future. The growing unpredictability of weather patterns requires broader regional collaboration to mitigate the effects and better prepare for future challenges. This cooperation will complement the Tropical Cyclone Warning Center, which Indonesia’s Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) operates in Jakarta.
The 10-14 February meeting comes as severe weather events, such as extreme rainfall, tropical cyclones, droughts, heatwaves, are having an increasingly significant impact worldwide, both in terms of human life and to the economy. These extreme conditions are exacerbated due to climate change, resulting in more frequent and intense rainfall, unprecedented rainfall patterns, intensifying storms, prolonged drought, frequent heatwaves, etc. The South East Asia – Oceania archipelagic region is very prone to severe weather. Coastal regions, home to the majority of the population and economic activity, are facing the brunt of these severe weather and rising sea levels.
Further inland, severe weather disrupts agriculture activities and in the longer run threatens water and food security.
“Better regional coordination will also facilitate enhance preparedness and support humanitarian assistance when an undesired impact occurred,” said Head of the Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) Prof Dwikorita Karnawati, who is also the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). “Weather knows no border, and not a single country in the World can work in isolation as soon as weather forecasting is considered at range beyond hours and a few days.”
She highlighted that the majority of Indonesia’s land mass is now experiencing the peak of the rainy season and major severe weather events in the past weeks have caused significant impacts country wide, such as floodings (also in Jakarta) and landslides. The peak of the rainy season will continue for 1-2 weeks’ time, and the rainy season will continue until May, gradually transitioning in to the dry season. To tackle the challenge of increasing occurrence and severity of extreme weather events in the region, cooperation is a necessity.
Further, early warning services also have to cope with the challenge of timely and accurate warnings of simultaneous occurrence of multiple-hazards in the region, for compounding and cascading hazards. Capabilities in informing the society for multi-hazard events, is becoming more urgent. By way of example in Indonesia, a volcanic eruption that deposits volcanic materials in the vicinity of the volcano may lead to lahar and debris flow when a heavy rainfall in such area occur.
Mr. Cyrille Honore, Director of Disaster Risk Reduction, Multi Hazard Early Warning Systems Office and Public Service Division of the WMO, explained that the WMO has supported multilateral cooperation for decades. This year 2025 is indeed the 75th anniversary of WMO as the United Nation’s specialized agency for weather, water and climate.
“The WMO and its member countries and territories have established cooperation frameworks in which mutual support is provided through a cascading process,” he said. “It builds on capabilities of advanced recognized World Meteorological Centers continued by a full series of Regional Centers which further provide support to National Meteorological Centers such as BMKG.”
Regional and sub-regional scale such as South East Asia and Oceania is the level where countries can cooperate and collaborate in operational manner for weather services beyond merely sharing data, but also building communities of practice in smaller domains where they all share common challenges.
To facilitate this global need in a regional setting, the WMO designed the Severe Weather Forecasting Program (SWFP), which started as a demonstration project in 2006 in southern Africa and is already benefiting 85 countries in 9 subregions of the World. From the WMO perspective, this endeavour in the South East Asia – Oceania region is extremely appreciated as the scaling up and expansion of the severe weather forecasting framework is a key process in implementing the United Nations Secretary General’s Early Warning for All (EW4All) Initiative, ambitioning that every person on earth is protected by early warning systems by 2027, Mr Honore said.
He further elaborates the importance of WMO Members countries’ meteorological service to embrace business continuity approaches. In the complex environment we all live in, there could be multiple sources of potential disruption, including from natural hazards themselves. Maintaining life critical services such as severe weather forecasting and warning is a vital need, especially in times of crisis when compound effects of different natures can lead to true disasters. International experts from all around the world are also working together this week in Jakarta on developing resources and capacity development material tailored to meteorological services operations. These combined endeavours are aimed to make the best possible arrangements to continuously monitor, forecast, and warn countries and their people ahead of hazardous situations to mitigate their impacts to the extent possible.
Prof Dwikorita Karnawati further explained that in order to ensure business continuity of the meteorological services, BMKG has setup contingency procedures to ensure continued 24-7 operation for timely warnings of hazards and information to be available to the public.
(According to the joint WMO-UNISDR-GFDRR-BMKG publication, Country Assessment for Indonesia: Strengthening hydro-meteorological services in Southeast Asia, the Benefit to Cost Ratio of investments to meteorological services in Indonesia during the period 2010 to 2029 is 550:1, meaning that every US$1 invested could yield US$550 in benefits from meteorological service’s added value to the country’s economy.)
