Road users on Jalan Sudirman in Central Jakarta on Saturday afternoon probably thought they saw a sign of the apocalypse when it appeared that snow had fallen on the capital’s commercial center.
At the time, social media was awash with pictures and videos of what many thought was the strangest weather phenomenon Jakarta has ever seen.
Oh shit. Snow in Jakarta? pic.twitter.com/o263Yk1ZCH
— Joko Anwar (@jokoanwar) May 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/Indo_Gunner/status/860852815232618497
But the theory melted faster than the “snow” could be plowed. The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) released a statement verifying that the white stuff on the ground was not snow, but foam coming from the underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) railway.
“It’s impossible for snow to fall in Jakarta,” said BMKG spokesman Hary Tirto Djatmiko, as quoted by Detik on Saturday.
PT MRT, the company overseeing the MRT construction, said the foam came from Kankyo-8, a cleaning agent used on tunnel boring equipment. They said a contractor’s worker forgot to turn off the valve for Kankyo-8, causing it to mix up with water and lather, spilling into the street above.
“We asked the contractor to clean up the foam by rinsing it away with water,” said PT MRT secretary Tubagus Hikmatullah, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
Tubagus added that the foam is not harmful, and it was all washed away shortly after it spilled on Jalan Sudirman.
The contractor, who was not named, was given “demerit points” for the incident, which could affect its potential to work for PT MRT in the future.
Snow in Jakarta may be “impossible”, but back in March we did actually see hail fall in the capital. Last month, Jakarta’s neighboring city of Bandung got so much hail that it resembled snow in some areas.
