A Breath of Fresh Air From Angin Gak BerKTP
Wow.
It’s been 7 days and counting.
Air quality has been healthy since November 29 and the city has been absolutely transformed.
Can you even believe this is Jakarta?
This ultimately became a trending topic, as the shock of the sudden clear skies reverberated through TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.
But why did this happen?
Did the government suddenly shut off all power plants?
Are EV sales hitting record highs?
Are people leaving their cars at home?
Let’s dive deeper.
A Toxic Start To The Month
According to the data collected by Nafas, the first few weeks of the month were actually quite terrible.
On the 17th, during a running event in Jakarta, PM2.5 even reached 79 ug/m3 and I posted on Twitter about the need to cancel events like this during high air pollution days.
And the next few days, things drastically changed.
A New Wind Was About To Blow
In between the wet and dry seasons, there’s something called the transition season. And during this time we see big changes in meteorological conditions.
From November 18th onwards, we can see that winds had started blowing from the West. At first just a little bit, but then significantly more.
At the same time, we also saw wind speeds significantly increase in the exact same time period. From November 18th onwards, we can see that average daily windspeeds increased by 39% from the few weeks before.
Where did all this come from?
Angin Gak BerKTP - Jakarta’s Pollution Solution?
Looking at the entire month, the transition between dry and wet season is very clear - check out the data below.
So we know now that wind and windspeed played a massive role in this sudden shift. Yes, there was a little rain in there as well, but the PM2.5 particles were primarily blown somewhere else.
This was caused by Cyclone Robyn in the Australian sea, raging for days and causing wind patterns in the region to shift.
The good news is that this cyclone didn’t hit any land, and only brought our lungs a well deserved break during this seasonal transition.
We can say that there were 3 phases to this transitional time.
Phase 1: November 1-18
Phase 2: November 18-27
Phase 3: November 27-30
PM2.5 level chart
Phase 1 to 2 : 42%
Phase 2 to 3: 33%
Wind Speed Chart
Phase 2 to 3: 39%
Wind Speed in Jakarta
| Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 |
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After 7 days of great air quality, we’ve been really spoiled.
We’ve done nothing to reduce pollution levels from a human activity perspective.
The powerplants are still running, cars and trucks still stuck in traffic and people still burning trash.
But at least our skylines look like this
Let’s just hope that our meteorological conditions extend for as long as possible.
And don’t forget to check the Nafas app to track it!
