Dozens of hotspots detected on Sumatra Island

News24xx.com - On Saturday, February 10, 2018, The Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has detected dozen of hotspot, on Sumatra Island.

The hotspots were found in Riau provinces, Riau Island provinces, North Sumatera and West Sumatera.

Head of the datasection of the Pekanbaru meteorology station, Slamet Riyadi, said on Sunday.

"Riau has 14 hotspots, Riau Island provinces has 5 hotspots, North Sumatera has 1 hotspots and West Sumatera has 1 hotspots", he stated.

In Riau Province, the hotspots were detected in Pelalawan District has nine hotspots, Indragiri Hilir has three hotspots, and Bengkalis has two hotspots.

While the weather in Riau is tends to be sunny cloudy, both day and night. With air humidity about 50 - 92 percent and wind from North up to North Sea is about 09 - 27 km / hour.

 

This condition should be wary, because now, Riau Province has entered the dry season. And temperatures during the day can reach until 32 degrees Celsius.

Last year, Indonesia was relatively free from haze from forest fires thanks to joint efforts involving military officers to prevent and put out the fires.

Based on monitoring data of the NOAA satellite, the number of hotspots in 2016 had decreased by 82.14 percent compared to that in 2015, while the Terra and Aqua satellites showed a drop of 94.58 percent.

Currently, Indonesia is bracing for forest and plantation fires, as the country is forecast to experience drought from February in this year that could induce wildfires.

Despite the country being relatively free of haze and smog arising from forest fires last year, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged all stakeholders to undertake early preventive measures against wildfires.

The head of state has reminded ministers and regional authorities to remain vigilant against forest fires starting from early this year.

 

 

 

 

News24xx.com/wer/dev