Equatorial waves triggering extreme rainfall and floods in southwest Sulawesi
Beata Latos; Thierry Lefort; Maria K. Flatau; Piotr J. Flatau; Donaldi S. Permana; Dariusz B. Baranowski; Jaka A. I. Paski; Erwin Makmur; Eko Sulystyo; Philippe Peyrillé; Zhe Feng; Adrian J. Matthews; Jerome M. Schmidt
Latos, B., T. Lefort, M.K. Flatau, P.J. Flatau, D.S. Permana, D.B. Baranowski, J.A.I. Paski, E. Makmur, E. Sulystyo, P. Peyrillé, Z. Feng, A.J. Matthews, and J.M. Schmidt. Equatorial waves triggering extreme rainfall and floods in southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia. Monthly Weather Review, 149(5):1381–1401, 2021.
Abstract
On the basis of detailed analysis of a case study and long-term climatology, it is shown that equatorial waves and their interactions serve as precursors for extreme rain and flood events in the central Maritime Continent region of southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia. Meteorological conditions on 22 January 2019 leading to heavy rainfall and devastating flooding in this area are studied. It is shown that a convectively coupled Kelvin wave (CCKW) and a convectively coupled equatorial Rossby wave (CCERW) embedded within the larger-scale envelope of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) enhanced convective phase, contributed to the onset of a mesoscale convective system that developed over the Java Sea. Low-level convergence from the CCKW forced mesoscale convective organization and orographic ascent of moist air over the slopes of southwest Sulawesi. Climatological analysis shows that 92% of December–February floods and 76% of extreme rain events in this region were immediately preceded by positive low-level westerly wind anomalies. It is estimated that both CCKWs and CCERWs propagating over Sulawesi double the chance of floods and extreme rain event development, while the probability of such hazardous events occurring during their combined activity is 8 times greater than on a random day. While the MJO is a key component shaping tropical atmospheric variability, it is shown that its usefulness as a single factor for extreme weather-driven hazard prediction is limited.
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Equatorial Waves Triggering Extreme Rainfall and Floods in Southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia
BEATA LATOS,a THIERRY LEFORT,b MARIA K. FLATAU,c PIOTR J. FLATAU,d DONALDI S. PERMANA,e
DARIUSZ B. BARANOWSKI,a JAKA A. I. P ASKI,e ERWIN MAKMUR,e EKO SULYSTYO,e PHILIPPE PEYRILLÉ,f
ZHE FENG,g ADRIAN J. MATTHEWS,h AND JEROME M. SCHMIDTc
a Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
b École Nationale de la M étéorologie, Météo-France, Toulouse, France
c Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, California
d Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California
e Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics of the Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
f Centre National de Recherches M étéorologiques, Météo-France, Toulouse, France
g Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington
h Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Sciences, and School of Mathematics, University of East
Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
(Manuscript received 17 August 2020, in final form 2 February 2021)
ABSTRACT: On the basis of detailed analysis of a case study and long-term climatology, it is shown that equatorial waves and
their interactions serve as precursors for extreme rain and floodevents in the central Maritime Continent region of southwest
Sulawesi, Indonesia. Meteorological conditions on 22 January 2019leading to heavy rainfall and devastating flooding in this area are
studied. It is shown that a convectively coupled Kelvin wave (CCKW) and a convectively c oupled equatorial Rossby wave
(CCERW) embedded within the larger-scale envelope of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) enhanced convective phase,
contributed to the onset of a mesoscale convective system that developed over the Java Sea. Low-level convergence from
the CCKW forced mesoscale convective organization and orographic ascent of moist air over the slopes of southwest
Sulawesi. Climatological analysis shows that 92% of December–February floods and 76% of extreme rain events in this
region were immediately preceded by positive low-level westerly wind anomalies. It is estimated that both CCKWs and
CCERWs propagating over Sulawesi double the chance of floods and extreme rain event development, while the probability
of such hazardous events occurring during their combined activity is 8 times greater than on a random day. While the MJO
is a key component shaping tropical atmospheric variability, it is shown that its usefulness as a single factor for extreme
weather-driven hazard prediction is limited.
KEYWORDS: Maritime Continent; Kelvin waves; Madden-Julian oscillation; Extreme events; Flood events; Precipitation
1. Introduction
Indonesia, with its tropical and monsoonal climate, is ex-
posed to extreme rain accumulation ( Ramage 1968 ; Chang
et al. 2005; Moron et al. 2015) and thus weather-driven hazards,
such as landslides (Liao et al. 2010) and floods (Aryastana et al.
2015; Sekaranom and Masunaga 2017 ; Sugiartha et al. 2017 ;
Paski et al. 2020 ). Population growth, deforestation and sig-
nificant changes in land use have resulted in shrinking reten-
tion areas, which along with climate change make the country
especially vulnerable to flooding ( Measey 2010 ; Muis et al.
2015). Official statistics published by the Indonesian National
Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) indicate that
between 2010 and 2018, around 87% of all natural disasters
nationwide were hydrometeorological events (including floods,
tides, tornadoes, droughts, and landslides) and 36% of all natural
disasters were floods ( BNPB 2019 ). However, physical phe-
nomena triggering extreme rainfall and weather-driven hazards
still remain to be fully investigated. This lack of understanding is
challenging, especially from the socioeconomic perspective of a
developing country (Jongman et al. 2015).
Sulawesi (Fig. 1) is the fourth largest and third most populated
of the Indonesian islands. It is located east of Borneo, between
the Java Sea to the southwest, the Celebes Sea to the north, and
the Banda Sea to the east. Sulawesi is inhabited by nearly
20 million people. Nearly 9 million people, or about 45% of the
island’s population, live in the densely populated South
Sulawesi province located in the southwestern part of the is-
land. Makassar is the capital and the largest urban area of the
Corresponding author: Beata Latos, blatos@igf.edu.pl
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DOI: 10.1175/MWR-D-20-0262.1
/C2112021 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright
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island, as well as the eighth biggest city in Indonesia with a
population of nearly 1.5 million ( Central Bureau of Statistics
2017). The city is located west of a mountain chain and is adja-
cent to the Java Sea. This area constitutes the southwestern
Sulawesi region, which is particularly prone to flooding. In this
region between 1999 and 2018, nearly half of all natural disasters
(46%) were floods ( BNPB 2019 ). In January 2019, southwest
Sulawesi, including Makassar, experienced its largest flood on
record. The goal of this work is to understand the large-scale
meteorological conditions associated with this flood and with
other flooding events in this region.
Indonesia constitutes the largest part of the Maritime Continent
(MC), an area of ocean and islands within the Indo-Pacific warm
pool in Southeast Asia, which represents the largest area of very
high sea surface temperatures on Earth. It is a major center of at-
mospheric convection accompanied by significant latent heat re-
lease (Ramage 1968; Simpson et al. 1993). The combination of land
and ocean areas with local and large-scale drivers of convection
makes weather forecasting in this area a challenging task (Love
et al. 2011; Birch et al. 2016; Johnson et al. 2016; Baranowski et al.
2019) and limits the predictability of heavy rain events. The climate
of southwest Sulawesi (Gowa, Makassar, Maros, Jeneponto, and
Takalar districts) is monsoonal with two main seasons: a wet
season between November and April, with prevailing westerly
winds, and a dry season throughout the rest of the year.
Precipitation over the MC region has a multiscale character; it
varies in response to a number of large-scale phenomena. Over a
long, interannual time scale, regional precipitation patterns are
modified by climate modes such as El Niño–Southern Oscillation
(ENSO) (Aldrian and Dwi Susanto 2003; Jia et al. 2016; Zhang
et al. 2016) or the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) ( Saji et al. 1999 ;
Schott et al. 2009 ). On an intra-annual time scale, rainfall vari-
ability is associated with the seasonal progression of the inter-
tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and monsoonal flow. Over
Sulawesi, the Southeast Asian monsoon provides an environment
supportive of rain events ( Kripalani and Kulkarni 1997; Chang
et al. 2005) during the boreal winter. On a subseasonal time scale,
convection over the MC is to a great extent driven by large-scale
propagating modes such as the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO)
(Madden and Julian 1972 ; Peatman et al. 2014 ), which is a
dominant component of intraseasonal variability in the tropics
(Zhang 2005 ), and equatorially trapped convectively coupled
waves ( Wheeler and Kiladis 1999 ; Kiladis et al. 2009 ), that
contribute up to 16%–20% of total intraseasonal precipitation
(Lubis and Jacobi 2015 ). In particular, eastward-propagating
convectively coupled Kelvin waves (CCKWs) have high ampli-
tude over the Maritime Continent ( Roundy 2008; Baranowski
et al. 2016b). Together with other equatorial waves, they form the
‘‘building blocks’’ of the active phase of the MJO ( Majda et al.
2004; Wheeler and Nguyen 2015).
Recent studies (Chen et al. 2019) show that CCKWs have an
impact on rainfall variability over the greater part of the MC and
can provide useful guidance for weather forecasting in this region,
even in the absence of an active MJO. For example, in Sumatra,
CCKWs constitute a critical dynamical predictor for flood onset
(Baranowski et al. 2020) – this mode is associated with over 90%
of all floods and is solely responsible for nearly 30% of them.
Similarly, Lubis and Respati (2021)
show that the convectively
active phases of Kelvin waves increase the probability of extreme
rain events over Java Island by about 30%–60%. On the other
hand, the convectively active phases of Rossby waves increase the
probability by about 15%–45%. Ferrett et al. (2019) also links
extreme precipitation (exceeding 95th percentile of precipita-
tion for 1998–2016), both in the western and eastern part of the
Maritime Continent, to equatorial waves. In their study, the
largest increase in rainfall in Indonesia, including Sulawesi, was
primarily associated with high-amplitude CCKWs. On a shorter,
synoptic time scale, extreme precipitation events and floods in the
western MC have been associated with cold surges and with the
Borneo vortex (Tangang et al. 2008; Salahuddin and Curtis 2011;
Lim et al. 2017; Paulus and Shanas 2017).
In addition, precipitation on the MC islands and in their
offshore vicinity is driven by a very strong diurnal cycle of local
convection and circulation ( Qian 2008; Yamanaka et al. 2018 ;
Paski et al. 2019; Sakaeda et al. 2020). Diurnal land convection
influences the Maritime Continent response to MJO propa-
gation, with enhanced precipitation over the large islands de-
veloping ahead of the MJO-related convection over the ocean
(Peatman et al. 2014 ; Sakaeda et al. 2020 ; Qian 2020). In turn,
the diurnal cycle influences longer-time-scale variability and
mean precipitation through an upscale energy transfer ( Birch
et al. 2016 ; Ruppert and Chen 2020 ). Therefore, precipitation
variability over the entire MC region, including the island of
Sulawesi, has a fully multiscale character.
This paper attempts to establish a link between extreme
rainfall, floods in southwest Sulawesi, and their meteorological
drivers. The structure of the paper is as follows: section 2 pres-
ents the datasets and methods used, section 3 describes the
rainfall drivers of the January 2019 Makassar flood, section 4
explores the statistical relationship between floods and extreme
rainfall and gives insight into their connection with equatorial
waves, and section 5 provides the summary and conclusions.
2. Data and methods
a. Satellite data
Gridded daily outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) (Liebmann
and Smith 1996) on a regular 2.583 2.58 latitude–longitude grid
for the 1 January 1998–30 June 2019 period was used. Daily
FIG. 1. Orography (m) of the western and central Maritime
Continent. Significant locations referred to in the main text are
marked. The red box indicates the domain around southwest
Sulawesi shown in Fig. 2.
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precipitation estimates (combined microwave-IR) based on
the 3-hourly Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)
(Huffman et al. 2010 ) gridded dataset (TRMM 3B42 v7) were
utilized at their native spatial resolution of 0.25 8 for the
same period as the OLR data. Additionally, Integrated
Multisatellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Mission
(IMERG) Final Precipitation L3 V06 products (Huffman et al.
2019) on a 0.1 83 0.18 latitude–longitude grid were used, daily
and half-hourly for the 19–24 January 2019 period and half-
hourly for 1 October 2013–30 June 2019.
b. Reanalysis data
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
(ECMWF) fifth major global reanalysis (ERA5) data (zonal
and meridional wind and specific humidity) for the 19–24 January
2019 period were obtained at 20 pressure levels between 1000 and
300 hPa on a regular 0.25 83 0.258 latitude–longitude grid with
hourly temporal resolution, and for the 1 October 2018–30 June
2019 period with daily resolution (Copernicus Climate Change
Service (C3S) 2017). Additionally, the horizontal divergence of
velocity for January 2019 were obtained at 27 pressure levels
between 1000 and 100 hPa. The 850-hPa zonal and meridional
wind components were obtained for the 1 January 1998–30 June
2019 period to calculate climatologies of lower-tropospheric
winds. Finally, ERA5 relative vorticity at 500 mb was obtained
for 21 and 22 January 2019.
c. In situ data
Daily rainfall measurements for the period 20–23 January
2019 were obtained from 22 stations located in southwest
Sulawesi, in the districts of Makassar, Maros, and Gowa. Daily
rain accumulation, average wind speed at 10 m above the ground
and sunshine duration between 1 January 1999 and 30 June 2019
were obtained for Maros Climatological Station (WMO ID
97184) and Hasanuddin Meteorological Station, located in
Makassar (WMO ID 97180). The data are available at http://
dataonline.bmkg.go.id – an online database developed by the
Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics of the
Republic of Indonesia ( BMKG 2019 ). Twice-daily weather
balloon data were obtained for Ujung Pandang (Makassar)
WMO station number 97180. Missing data on 3, 4, 5, 10, 22, and
28 of January and upper-level data on days when the balloon
burst below 50 hPa were estimated using linear interpolation.
d. Sea surface temperature data
Sea surface temperature (SST) data from the Fleet
Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC)
High-Resolution SST/Sea Ice Analysis for Global High
Resolution SST project were used ( GHRSST 2019). Data are
available every 6 h at a near-global Mercator projection grid,
with 12-km resolution at the equator. Data for 1 January 2006–
31 January 2019 were used to calculate SST anomalies in
January 2019, during the Makassar flood.
e. Water vapor transport
The integrated horizontal water vapor transport (IVT) was
calculated using ERA5 zonal and meridional winds and spe-
cific humidity:
IVT 5
"/C18 1
g
ð300
1000
qu dp
/C19 2
1
/C18 1
g
ð300
1000
qy dp
/C19 2#1/2
, (1)
where q, g, p, u, and y represent specific humidity, acceleration
due to gravity, pressure, and zonal and meridional wind speed,
respectively. The integral was calculated between 1000 and
300 hPa, using 20 levels of the ERA5 dataset.
f. Calculation of daily anomalies
Daily anomalies of relevant data (ERA5, OLR, TRMM,
in situ) were computed by removing the seasonal cycle, defined
as the mean plus the first three annual harmonics fitted to an
average annual cycle calculated for the 1998–2019 period. Due
to data availability, SST anomalies for January 2019 were de-
fined as the difference from average January conditions cal-
culated between 2006 and 2019.
g. Equatorial wave filtering
To isolate signals associated with distinct equatorial modes,
a wavenumber–frequency spectral analysis ( Wheeler and
Kiladis 1999, hereafter WK99) was performed for all latitudes
in the meridional band of 15 8S–158N, using the NCAR com-
mand language (NCL) script filter_waves, available from Dr.
C. Schreck at GitLab ( https://k3.cicsnc.org/carl/carl-ncl-tools/
blob/master/filter/filter_waves.ncl). For each latitude within
these bounds, a two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT)
was performed in longitude and time dimensions on daily
anomalies with the annual cycle removed, to transform to
wavenumber–frequency space. Filtering was then applied to
isolate variability corresponding to each mode and the data
were transformed back to physical, longitude–time space. The
wavenumber–frequency filtering for the MJO mode retained
eastward-propagating signals with zonal wavenumbers 1–9 and
periods of 30–96 days ( Kiladis et al. 2005 ). CCKWs were de-
fined as propagating signals with equivalent depths of 8–90 m,
periods of 2.5–17 days, and eastward propagation at zonal
wavenumbers 1–14 ( Straub and Kiladis 2002 ). Rossby waves
were defined as westward-propagating disturbances with zonal
wavenumbers 1–10, periods 9.7–48 days, and equivalent depths
of 5–9 m ( Kiladis et al. 2009 ).
Although the originalWK99method chooses the wavenumber–
frequency band for each wave according to the power spectrum
of OLR, it is also applicable to other parameters, such as
precipitation (e.g., Lubis and Jacobi 2015 ; Guo et al. 2014 ;
Baranowski et al. 2016a ; Sakaeda et al. 2020 ), wind fields (e.g.,
Ridout and Flatau 2011 ; Chen et al. 2019 ), as well as precipi-
table water (e.g., Roundy and Frank 2004 ). The structure of
precipitation and wind fields resembles the expected structure
of equatorial waves (see section 4b; Fig. 13 for details).
h. Radar data and analysis
The Gematronik C-band Doppler radar located in Maros
(4.99778S, 119.57208E, 19 m MSL) was used to derive the high-
resolution local rainfall field for 20–23 January 2019 period
(the radar stopped operating for about 3 h on 22 January due
to a power outage during the flood). The data were recorded
every 10 min in volumetric format, consisting of nine plan
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position indicator (PPI) scans containing reflectivity values in
decibels (dBZ).
Radar data processing was conducted using the wradlib
Python library (Heistermann et al. 2013), which includes reading
common data formats, georeferencing, identifying and correct-
ing typical error sources (such as clutter or attenuation), con-
verting reflectivity to rainfall intensity, and data visualization.
Elimination of ground clutter, caused by nonmeteorological
factors, such as the presence of objects on the surface of Earth
(e.g., mountains, hills, tall buildings) or objects in the air (e.g.,
aircraft or birds) was done by texture-based technique developed
by Gabella and Notarpietro (2002). Afterward, the attenuation
correction was applied using methods developed byKrämer and
Verworn (2009).The approach accounts for the microphysical
properties of current rainfall, rather than adjustment of radar
data with the help of rain gauges. For each volumetric file, the
altitude column maximum of PPI (CMAX) was extracted and
finally, converted into NetCDF format in Cartesian coordinates.
Following methods used by BMKG, the quantitative precipita-
tion estimation (QPE) value was derived from the followingZ–R
relationship: Z 5 AR
b, where A 5 200, b 5 1.6, Z is the re-
flectivity factor, and R is the rainfall rate (Marshall et al. 1947).
i. Tracking of mesoscale convective systems and
high-frequency precipitation events
An updated version of the FLEXible object TRaKeR
(FLEXTRKR) algorithm ( Feng et al. 2018 ) was employed to
track mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) in December,
January, and February 2014–19 over the MC region based on
NASA global MergedIR infrared brightness temperature data
(Janowiak et al. 2001 ) and GPM IMERG half-hourly precipi-
tation data ( Huffman et al. 2014 ). The method is described in
detail in Feng et al. (2021) . At first, the method identifies and
tracks large cold cloud systems (CCS) associated with deep
convection using satellite infrared (Tb) data and subsequently
identifies MCSs using GPM IMERG precipitation feature (PF)
characteristics. An MCS is defined as a large CCS (Tb , 241 K,
area . 4 3 10
4 km2) that contains a PF (contiguous area
within a CCS with rain rate . 2m mh 21) with major axis
length . 100 km, and PF area, PF mean rain rate, PF rain-rate
skewness, and heavy rain (rain rate . 10 mm h21) volume ratio
exceeding certain thresholds and which persists for at least 5 h.
High-frequency (HF) precipitation events between 1998 and
2019 were identified using a 3-hourly TRMM gridded dataset.
First, HF precipitation signal is defined using a high-pass time
filter that retains signal with frequencies higher than 3 days.
Next, HF signal is spatially averaged over southwestern
Sulawesi. HF precipitation events are defined as events for
which normalized precipitation continuously, for a period
longer than 12 h, exceeds two, three, or four standard devia-
tions calculated for the entire 1999–2019 period.
j. Floods database
A database of flood events was obtained from the
Indonesian National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure
(BNPB) at http://dibi.bnpb.go.id/ for southwest Sulawesi (area
of 4975 km
2). Most (66 out of 80) of the flood events between
1 January 1999–28 February 2019 in this database occurred
during the boreal winter months (DJF). Within the southwest
Sulawesi region, there are five administrative regencies: Gowa
(1883 km2), Makassar (199 km2), Maros (1619 km2), Jeneponto
(707 km2), and Takalar (567 km2). The database contained rep-
etitions because each regency reports floods separately. Thus,
a flood event on a particular day can be reported up to five
times. To resolve this issue, we ignored events that were re-
peated. This led to 42 flood events, out of which we disregarded
3 cases of very low (less than 35 mm) 4–day precipitation ac-
cumulation estimated using the TRMM dataset. In the end, we
obtained 39 DJF flooding days with substantial precipitation,
which occurred between 1 January 1999 and 28 February 2019.
k. Extreme rainfall database
To explore the distribution of extreme rainfall, we used
mean values of in situ data from two stations with continuous,
high-quality precipitation r ecords (Maros Climatological
Station and Hasanuddin Meteorological Station). Following
the definition adopted by BMKG, days with in situ–measured
rain accumulation exceeding 100 mm (an average of two sta-
tions) were classified as ‘‘extreme rainfall days.’’ This absolute
threshold corresponded to the 97th percentile of daily rainfall
total, at each of the two stations. The timespan was set for DJF
days between 1 January 1999 and 28 February 2019 to be
consistent with the flood database period. By using this ap-
proach, we identified 49 extreme rain days.
3. Case study of devastating flood of January 2019
a. Flood event
In January 2019, the Jeneberang River overflowed its banks
and caused a flood that was the most devastating ever reported
in the region (BNPB 2019), with a total area affected by flooding
at around 3700 km
2. The total number of victims was estimated
at 53 dead, 47 injured, and 14 085 evacuated ( BNPB 2019 ).
The Jeneberang River basin is located in southwest
Sulawesi, with its origin at 2833 m above mean sea level and its
outflow at the city of Makassar into the Makassar Strait (Fig. 2).
The river is 90 km long with a catchment area of 727 km2 (Pawitan
et al. 2002). To supply surrounding areas with year-round water
and to prevent flooding, the Bili-Bili dam with a total capacity
of 375 000 000 m3 has been constructed (Arafat et al. 2015). The
Jeneberang River provides water for agricultural and urban
needs, yet has a long history of flooding.
At 1600 UTC 20 January, precipitation began in southwest
Sulawesi. Rain continued until 0800 UTC 23 January (Fig. 3). In
many areas it brought continuous rain of up to 63-h duration.
Local floods in the Jeneberang River basin started just after
heavy rain began on 21 January. The rain caused an increase in
the water level of the Jeneberang River and of the Bili-Bili dam.
At 0600 UTC 21 January 2019, the water reached a critical level
of 99.4 m and the reservoir operation door was opened. At the
same time a warning was issued (PUPR 2019). The water level of
the Bili-Bili dam continued to rise until 1200 UTC 22 January,
when it reached the maximum of 101.6 m ( PUPR 2019 ). On
22 January, the magnitude of this flood in Makassar was such that
roads became impassable and power outages occurred. This was
caused by continuous precipitation and the opening of the dam.
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Radar observations ( Fig. 2; animation of precipitation from
C-band Doppler radar can be found by following the link:
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12758741.v1 (Latos and
Permana 2020 ) on 21 January and corresponding Himawari-
8 satellite images (not shown), indicate heavy onshore
showers that started just after 0000 UTC. During the hours
that followed, showers were mostly confined to the slopes of
mountains. Lightning strikes were observed. At 1500 UTC
21 January, more widespread rain came from offshore con-
vective systems and fewer lightning strikes were detected.
The highest precipitation amounts were recorded around
0000 UTC 22 January (morning local time) ( Fig. 3 ).
The total rainfall accumulated between 20 and 23 January in
the flood zone ( Fig. 2 ) reached 151 mm, based on radar mea-
surements, 233 mm based on GPM satellite data and 376 mm
according to in situ measurements (Fig. 3). The radar estimates
are low in comparison to in situ and satellite observations. On 22
and 23 January, this may be related to a 3-hourly power outage at
the radar site during the flood. Additionally, some uncertainty of
Z–R QPE is expected, due to calibration, attenuation correction,
Z–R relationship itself, etc. Rain gauges recorded the highest
daily accumulation for each day except on 23 January, when
GPM slightly exceeded the in situ measurements. Between 20
and 23 January, precipitation estimated by GPM data were 38%
lower than measured by local rain gauges.
The GPM mission is the successor of TRMM, which was
known to underestimate precipitation in mountainous regions
(e.g., Berg et al. 2006; Huffman et al. 2010; Condom et al. 2011;
Matthews et al. 2013; Rauniyar et al. 2017). GPM precipitation
estimates are generally more accurate than TRMM, but the
highest intensity rainfall in the MC is still underestimated
(Mahmud et al. 2017 ). This is consistent with the results found
here over the rapidly changing slope angle and surface het-
erogeneity of southwest Sulawesi.
The total rain accumulation from radar estimates between
20 and 23 of January is shown in Fig. 2 . Over the mountain
slopes of Jeneberang River basin, precipitation reached 350–
400 mm. This is higher in comparison to values observed for the
low-lying city of Makassar.
b. Synoptic overview
On 19 and 20 January, a pair of westward-moving cyclonic
vortices was present over the eastern Maritime Continent
(Fig. 4)—one in the Northern Hemisphere near the Philippines
(on 20 January located around 88N, 1308E) and the other in the
Southern Hemisphere over the Timor Sea (on 20 January lo-
cated around 10 8S, 132 8E). These twin vortices developed in
the Pacific Ocean and propagated westward toward the MC. In
addition, a pair of lee cyclonic vortices developed over the
Indian Ocean near the western coast of Sumatra (on 20 January
located around 3 8N, 85 8E and 12 8S, 98 8E)—Sumatra vortices
(Fine et al. 2016 ), with increased westerly winds on the equa-
tor, near the Sumatra coast. On 21 January, a cold-surge-like
wind pattern with a northerly component to the flow began to
develop over the South China Sea, to the west of the Philippines.
This reached the central South China Sea on 22 January and is
further investigated insection 3f.O n2 1J a n u a r yaw e s t e r l yl o w -
level jet (LLJ) developed over the Java Sea. The peak strength at
850 hPa (about 24 m s
21) was observed at 0000 UTC 22 January,
just west of Makassar.
Figure 5 shows daily averaged integrated water vapor
transport (IVT) during the Makassar flood. On 21 January,
the most dominant feature was eastward transport of moisture
(400–700 kg m21 s21) from the Indian Ocean toward the east-
ern Maritime Continent. This transport was supported by the
four vortices previously noted in the low level flow: two west of
Sumatra, one over the Philippines and one over the Timor and
Banda Seas. On 22 January, this water vapor transport was
bolstered by a southward branch from the South China Sea and
through the Karimata Strait associated with the cold surge. The
maximum IVT exceeded 700 kg m
21 s21 over the Java Sea, just
west of southwestern Sulawesi.
The presence of the LLJ and enhanced moisture transport
created favorable conditions for the development of convection
and enhanced precipitation, which resulted in the devastating
Makassar flood. In the following sections, the contribution from a
number of processes known to modulate precipitation in the MC
area will be analyzed in the context of this flooding event.
c. Interannual to seasonal precipitation drivers
During the January 2019 flood, Indian Ocean Dipole was in
a neutral phase and ENSO-neutral conditions were present.
Monsoonal westerlies from Sumatra to Papua New Guinea were
FIG. 2. Total precipitation (mm) estimated by a C-band Doppler
radar located in Maros during 20–23 Jan 2019 (shading, interval:
50 mm), together with topography of the area (contours, interval:
200 m, from yellow at 400 m to brown at 3000 m). Location of the
city of Makassar is qualitatively depicted by a green circle and
Bili-Bili dam is indicated by a green rectangle. Locations of rain
gauge stations are depicted by yellow circles. The red box shows
the flood zone analyzed in Fig. 3. The Jeneberang River is marked
with a purple line.
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present. On 23 January, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology
(BOM) announced a weak monsoon onset in Darwin.
January 2019 sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies
(Fig. 6) were positive for the most of the Maritime Continent
region. In the Makassar Strait and western Indian Ocean, the
SST anomalies were positive and in the range of 08–0.58C, while
in the Karimata Strait and South China Sea, anomalies ex-
ceeded 1 8C( 1 8–1.58C). Such positive anomalies create favor-
able conditions for local evaporation and convection. Monthly
averaged outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) values ( Fig. 6 )
indicate areas associated with major convective regions, such
as monsoon and the ITCZ. The major convection in the MC in
January 2019, with very low OLR values ( ,220 W m
22), was
found slightly south of the equator and centered over the Java
Sea. A number of studies reveal two-way feedback between
convectively coupled Kelvin waves and the ITCZ (e.g., Straub
and Kiladis 2002 ; Dias and Pauluis 2011 ). The location and
width of ITCZ is important for wave trajectories, with the
ITCZ being a waveguide for CCKWs. The flood zone was
located in the southeastern part of the region of major
convection.
d. Subseasonal precipitation variability
The analysis of the observed atmospheric circulation indi-
cates the impact of various equatorial modes on the January
2019 flood event. During January 2019, an MJO event initiated
over the Indian Ocean (in RMM phase 3) on 16 January (the
first day when the MJO RMM index was outside the unit circle;
Fig. 7a ), and then propagated eastward. By the day of the
Makassar flood (21 January; red circle in Fig. 7a), the MJO was
in phase 5, with enhanced convection over the Maritime
Continent. This is consistent with the canonical MJO cycle,
where the maximum MJO-related precipitation at Makassar is
observed in phase 5 ( Fig. 7b).
On 21–22 January, enhancement of total low-level wind
anomalies are dominated by westerly anomalies over the Java
Sea and northerly flow over the South China Sea and the
Karimata Strait ( Fig. 8a ). The contributions to these wind
anomalies from CCKWs, the MJO, and convectively coupled
equatorial Rossby waves (CCERWs) are now investigated.
On 20 January, a CCKW is active with westerly anomalies
over the eastern Indian Ocean and easterly anomalies over the
western Maritime Continent ( Fig. 8b), with a zone of conver-
gence between these two regions. The westerly anomalies over
the eastern Indian Ocean show two distinct maxima, one on the
equator and one at 6 8S. Over the next 2 days, this structure
propagates eastward at approximately 15 m s
21. The equatorial
westerly anomaly decreases in magnitude, being potentially
partially blocked by the mountain range on Sumatra. However,
the southern branch increases in amplitude, such that the
maximum precipitation at Makassar ( Fig. 2 ) occurs in the
convergence zone ahead (to the east) of it.
On 20 January, the MJO ( Fig. 8c) had its maximum of low-
level convergence over the Java Sea, Borneo, and Sulawesi,
resulting in weak MJO-driven zonal flow in this area. On 21–
22 January, the MJO low-level convergence propagated
FIG. 3. (a) Mean hourly accumulated precipitation from GPM satellite and C-band Doppler
radar for the flood region. Time is in UTC. Time when the dam was opened is depicted by a
triangle. Red bars mark times when radar data were not available. (b) Daily mean accumulated
precipitation is based on GPM satellite, radar, and 22 rain gauges. The flood zone for which
both radar and GPM data are averaged over is defined as the box covering 5.05 8–5.358S,
119.158–119.558E (red box in Fig. 2).
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farther east and the area of the Java Sea and South Sulawesi
was affected by intraseasonal westerlies.
The bottom row in Fig. 8 shows the westward propagation of
CCERWs. Of relevance to the Makassar flood is the CCERW-
associated belt of westerly anomalies over the Java Sea, and the
northerly anomalies over the South China Sea that can be ascribed
as the cause of the cold surge there. These CCERW-associated
circulation features are now shown to be the main driver of the
enhanced moisture transport into the Makassar region (Fig. 5).
On 22 January 2019, total low-level wind speed anomalies
over the flood zone (58–68S, 1198–1208E) were about 12.3 m s
21
(Table 1 ). CCKW-driven anomalies with a mean speed of
about 2.6 m s21 account for around 21% of the total wind speed
anomaly. The MJO and CCERW (2.6 and 2.0 m s 21) account
for about 21% and 16% of total anomalies. These three types
of tropical weather systems considerably influence local low-
level wind speeds by contributing 58% of total wind speed
anomaly. Tropical depression–like flow and mixed Rossby–
gravity wave contributions were negligible.
Figure 9 presents the zonal and meridional wind structure at
12-h resolution during January 2019, measured by radiosonde
soundings taken in Makassar, together with horizontal diver-
gence of velocity at different levels. The arrival of the CCKW is
apparent in the zonal wind structure. Before the maximum in
precipitation on 22 January, weak total westerly winds are
observed up to roughly 400 hPa. After 22 January, strong total
westerly winds of up to 20 m s
21 are observed at Makassar in
the lower troposphere, extending right down to the surface on
22 January itself. Hence, the lower-tropospheric convergence
from the CCKW coincides with the maximum precipitation, on
22 January. The baroclinic nature of the CCKW circulation can
also be seen with the strong westerlies only occupying the
lower troposphere, up to 500 hPa, with strong easterly winds
above. There is also a meridional component to the flow, with
upper-tropospheric southerlies (upper-level divergence) ob-
served from 22 January, likely due to a combination of the
CCKW and the MJO circulation.
The large-scale convective modes that contribute to the
Makassar flood on 22 January can be usefully visualized with a
Hovmöller diagram of equatorial OLR anomalies ( Fig. 10 ).
Enhanced convection (negative OLR anomalies) can be seen
at Makassar (119 8E) on 22 January. Wavenumber–frequency
FIG. 4. Daily mean 850-hPa wind vectors and daily accumulated precipitation based on combined microwave-IR
retrievals (shading, mm). The longest vector corresponds to a wind speed of 22 m s21. The flood zone is depicted by
a circle.
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filtering, as described insection 2g, shows that Makassar was under
the influence of all three modes on 22 January: an eastward-
propagating MJO (green contours); an eastward-propagating
CCKW (black contours), and a westward-propagating CCERW
(purple contours). All three of these propagating modes passed
the longitude of Makassar on 22 January.
Further details of the influence of equatorial waves on
rainfall distribution is depicted in Fig. 11 a n di nt h eTable 1 .
On 22 January, the total precipitation anomaly averaged
over southwestern Sulawesi (58–68S, 1198–1208E) was estimated
at 70 mm ( Fig. 11a ). There were some contributions to this
total anomaly from CCKW (the CCKW contribution over
southwestern Sulawesi peaked on 22 January, at 8 mm,Fig. 11b)
and from the MJO (5 mm, Fig. 11c ). However, in the case of
CCERW, both precipitation ( Fig. 11d ) and wind ( Fig. 8d )
anomalies peaked 4 days before the 22 January flood. On
22 January, the precipitation anomaly related to the CCERW
over southwestern Sulawesi area was actually slightly negative.
On average, the CCKW and MJO contributions to the total
rainfall anomaly were 12% and 7%, respectively.
e. Mesoscale convective system
In addition to their direct contribution to the precipitation
anomaly, tropical modes augment local conditions, making it
favorable for multiscale convection development and further
amplifying local rainfall anomalies. For the MJO and CCKW,
the increase in precipitation over Sulawesi appeared closely
tied to the onset of greatest low-level convergence ( Fig. 9c ).
However, the contribution by the CCERW was more indirect.
The CCERW acts to enhance the northwesterly flow from the
South China Sea toward the Java Sea and contributes to the
increased moisture transport ( Fig. 5 ). Although direct
CCERW-driven precipitation anomaly on the day of flood
was slightly negative ( 21 mm), the CCERW contribution to
the anomalous moisture transport is estimated at 33%
(Table 1 ), i.e., over twice as much as estimated for CCKW,
and 80% of MJO-driven anomal y. This contribution indi-
cates the importance of this tropical mode.
Cyclonic vorticity can also provide favorable conditions for
development of mesoscale convective system (MCS) (Raymond
and Jiang 1990; Davis and Trier 2002). Thus, in addition to direct
contributions, the MJO and CCKW provide an environment
favorable for convection, whereas the CCERW provides en-
hanced low-level water vapor transport and favorable conditions
for mesoscale organization.
Following the methodology described in section 2i ,a n
MCS was detected over the Java Sea on 21 January. The
system developed very rapidly, reaching the criteria for a
mesoscale convective complex (MCC) ( Maddox 1980 ).
This development is consistent with the impact of equa-
torial waves on convective organization discussed by
Yasunaga and Mapes (2012) . They showed that slow, ro-
tational waves like CCERWs co ntribute to an increase in
environmental moisture and to the development of con-
vective cells, while divergent waves like CCKWs promote
the organization of convection into an MCS through
modification of convective inhibition. Therefore, the in-
teraction of both these modes would cause the rapid de-
velopment of an MCS and increased precipitation. Indeed,
this particular MCC, which developed over the Java Sea,
propagated and impacted precipitation over Sulawesi, contrib-
uting over 100 mm of rainfall to the flood (Fig. 12), that is, about
60% of the total 24-h fraction of rainfall estimated by GPM
IMERG. Animation of the hourly accumulated MCS-driven
FIG. 5. Daily averaged integrated water vapor transport on 21 and 22 Jan 2019 (shading, kg m21 s21). Daily mean
values of relative vorticity at 500 hPa are superimposed (contours, s 21). Pink contours show 5 3 1025 s21 and
orange contours 25 3 1025 s21.
FIG. 6. January 2019 sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies.
Blue shading represents negative SST anomalies and red shading
represents positive anomalies. Superimposed black contours are
the monthly averaged outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) values
for January 2019, which are observed to be between 200 and
240 W m
22. The flood zone is depicted by a circle.
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precipitation can be found by following the link: https://doi.org/
10.6084/m9.figshare.12758744.v1(Latos and Feng 2020).
f. Other causes of flood
Abnormally high tides attributed to the supermoon (a full
moon and lunar perigee) observed on 19–22 January also
contributed to the flooding. On 17 January BMKG released a
warning through their social media platforms calling for coastal
communities to be aware of this danger. The water level at the
mouth of the Jeneberang River rose by 0.2 m from 20 to
23 January due to this high tide (measurements taken at
Makassar Maritime Meteorological Station). Strong westerly
wind anomalies together with this high tide caused seawater
intrusion, flooding low-lying areas in the city of Makassar.
A wind surge (cold-surge-like flow) also potentially con-
tributed to the development of the January 2019 flood. Using
FIG. 7. (a) The Madden–Julian oscillation index in the RMM1–RMM2 phase space for 10–30 Jan 2019. The red
circle indicates the Makassar flood date. (b) Precipitation anomaly during Madden–Julian oscillation active phases
1–8 in southwest Sulawesi based on in situ measurements in December, January, and February of 1998/99–2018/19.
FIG. 8. Time evolution of 850-hPa wind vector anomalies during the Makassar flood event. (a) Total wind anomalies, as well as wind
anomalies filtered for (b) convectively coupled Kelvin waves, (c) the Madden–Julian oscillation, and (d) convectively coupled equatorial
Rossby waves. The flood zone at Makassar is shown by a blue circle.
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the criteria of Lim et al. (2017) , which is based on wind and
pressure in two rectangular boxes: 5 8–108N, 107 8–1158E over
the South China Sea and 18 8–228N, 105 8–1228E over China, a
wind surge was identified to be present on 16–18 January, and
then reactivated from 21 January. The wind surge associated
with the analyzed flood had the characteristics of a cross
equatorial cold surge (CES) (Xavier et al. 2020), with northerly
cross equatorial wind anomalies of 4–6 m s
21. While Xavier
et al. (2020) show that in January through March, CES could
negatively impact the propagation of MJO in phases 2–3,
during the analyzed flood the wind surge increased the mois-
ture transport and could positively affect MJO propagation in
phase 5. Intensification of the wind surge and development of
the CES during the analyzed event could be also attributed to
the CCERW, which impacted the cross-equatorial flow
through pressure change and circulation associated with the
cyclonic vortex over the Philippines. These resulted in the in-
tensification of northerlies over the South China Sea ( Fig. 8d),
considered in the surge index ( Lim et al. 2017 ).
4. Linking equatorial waves with extreme rainfall and
floods in southwest Sulawesi
a. Climatology
To understand the climatology of Sulawesi floods, we used a
flood database obtained from the Indonesian National Agency
for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB). According to this
database, DJF is the primary flood season with 76% of the total
number of events (39 out of 51). This is in agreement with the
highest precipitation rates being observed during the boreal
winter months, with 65% of accumulated rainfall occurring in
DJF. The majority (49%) of floods occur in January.
To explore the distribution of extreme rainfall, we used data
from two stations included in the database of the Agency for
Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics of the Republic of
Indonesia (BMKG), which had continuous, high quality pre-
cipitation records. We identified 49 extreme rain days, out of
which 41% were associated with floods, meaning they occurred
less than 2 days before the flood or within 1 day after. In ad-
dition, 51% of floods were associated with extreme rain
events—they occurred less than 2 days before or within 1 day
TABLE 1. Comparison of the state of various meteorological
parameters over the southwest Sulawesi region (5 8–68S, 119 8–
1208E) on 22 Jan 2019, filtered for convectively coupled equato-
rial Kelvin waves (CCKW), the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO),
and convectively coupled equatorial Rossby waves (CCERW).
Parameter Total CCKW MJO CCERW
IVT anomaly (kg m 21 s21) 517 70 217 173
Wind speed anomaly (m s 21) 12.3 2.6 2.6 2.0
Meridional wind
anomaly (m s21)
21.5 20.1 20.2 20.1
Zonal wind anomaly (m s 21) 12.2 2.6 2.6 2.0
Precipitation anomaly (mm) 70 8 5 21
FIG. 9. Pressure vs time plots of the (a) zonal and (b) meridional components of the wind
based on soundings taken in Makassar during January 2019 and (c) ERA5 horizontal diver-
gence of velocity. The parameter in (c) is positive for air that is spreading out (divergence), and
negative for air that is concentrating (convergence). The contour shading interval is (a),(b)
5ms
21 and (c) 10 25 s21. The zero contour is emphasized by a solid black line.
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after the extreme rain day. Interestingly, extreme rain events in
DJF were more evenly distributed throughout the season than
floods, with 38% occurring in December, 35% in January, and
27% in February. The differences in extreme rain days and
flood occurrence can be partially explained by local morphol-
ogy. The two BMKG stations that were used in this paper are
located in the lowlands, while floods can be associated with rain
events in the upper slopes of mountainous terrain and rivers
overflowing their banks. However, long-term in situ–measured
rainfall data for these regions were not available.
b. Statistical link
To generalize the results of the January 2019 case study, we
examine the role of convectively coupled equatorial waves
(CCKWs and CCERWs) and the MJO in flood events identi-
fied in the BKMG database and in the extreme rain occur-
rences from the local weather stations discussed above.
We identify the days when equatorial modes were active in
the vicinity of Sulawesi, using the empirical orthogonal func-
tion (EOF) decomposition of precipitation anomalies filtered
for CCKWs ( Fig. 13a ) and zonal wind anomalies filtered for
CCERWs (Fig. 13b). We use different variables for the Kelvin
and Rossby modes because, as established in the previous
section, the primary contribution of CCKWs to Sulawesi floods
is through precipitation in the convergence zone, while the
primary CCERW contribution is through the wind field (and
associated moisture advection). EOF analysis was applied to
wavenumber–frequency-filtered data ( Wheeler and Kiladis
1999) for boreal winter (DJF) between 1 January 1998 and
30 June 2019. In agreement with Roundy (2015) , multiple
EOFs were required to describe each phenomena, as they vary
over a range of spatial scales. For each mode (CCKW or
CCERW), two leading EOFs were extracted, as the eigen-
vectors of the covariance matrix with the largest eigenvalues
(Fig. 13 ). The resulting principal component (PC) time series
were used as an index of equatorial wave activity. PC1 and PC2
were used to formulate criteria for the wave activity. It is as-
sumed that a CCKW is active in the area if the amplitudeffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
(PC1
2 1 PC22)
p
exceeded the threshold value defined by 1.5
standard deviations calculated for the entire 1998–2019 period.
A similar technique was applied to ERs. As a result, 270
CCKW days and 248 CCERW days (out of 1895 DJF days in
total) were identified. On 30 of these days, both CCKW and
CCERW modes were observed near Sulawesi, while for 14 of
these days, both waves were embedded within the active MJO
envelope [phases 4–6; Wheeler and Hendon (2004) ], similarly
to the case analyzed in this study.
It can be seen ( Fig. 13 ) that CCKW EOFs 1 and 2 explain
5.5% and 5.4% of the total variance, respectively, while
CCERW EOFs 1 and 2 explain 12.5% and 11.6% of the total
variance, respectively. Relatively low variance explained by
precipitation-based EOFs in comparison with wind-based de-
composition is a known caveat of this method. It results from
the fundamental difference between the highly stochastic and
transient nature of the precipitation field’s evolution in com-
parison with the wind field.
In situ measurements from local BKMG stations indicate
that CCKW, CCERW and MJO activity cause the increase in
the local rainfall rate. While the daily mean rain accumulation
for DJF is 20.8 mm, it increases to 25.9 mm for CCKW,
28.7 mm for CCERW, and 28.1 mm for MJO phases 4–6, with a
maximum of 32.8 mm for phase 5.
To assess the contribution of selected meteorological drivers
to DJF extreme rain and flooding events, we examined the
percentage of extreme rain or flooding events that were asso-
ciated with the MJO, CCKWs, CCERWs and positive anom-
alies of the zonal wind component. For the extreme rainfall
events, 31% (15 out of 49) were associated with CCKWs, 20%
with CCERWs, 49% with MJO phases 4–6, and 84% with
positive anomalies of zonal wind. For the floods, results are
similar: positive zonal wind anomalies were present during
87% of floods, 21% of flood events were related to CCKWs,
23% were related to CCERWs, and 51% were related to MJO.
For southwestern Sulawesi, CCKWs are active during 14% of
all DJF days, CCERW during 13%, and MJO during 30%,
while positive zonal wind anomalies are present during 49% of
days. Therefore, in this area, more equatorial waves and en-
hanced zonal wind events can be observed during floods and
FIG. 10. Time–longitude (Hovm öller) diagram of OLR anoma-
lies averaged over 5 8N–58S, with an interval of 10 W m 22 (color
shading). Line contours show the amplitudes of selected equatorial
modes that have been wavenumber–frequency-filtered (details in
section 2g ): convectively coupled Kelvin wave (black lines, data
averaged from 58Nt o1 08S, contours from 220 to 26Wm
22, every
4Wm 22); convectively coupled equatorial Rossby waves (purple
lines, data averaged from 5 8 to 208S, contours as for CCKW); and
Madden–Julian oscillation (green lines, data averaged from 15 8N
to 158S, contours at 230, 220, and 210 W m22). The vertical line at
119.28E marks the location of the city of Makassar. The horizontal
line depicts 22 Jan 2019.
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extreme rainfall than during DJF average, indicating the role
of these disturbances in creating the conditions favorable for
extreme precipitation and flooding.
To estimate how the presence of tropical waves increases the
probability of extreme rain events and floods, we calculated the
ratio of days affected by waves to total number of extreme rain
and flood days. The probability of a flood on a given day during
boreal winter is roughly 0.02. The chance of extreme rain is
slightly higher (about 0.03). Using CCKW and CCERW
identification criteria, it is estimated that the chance of CCKW
or CCERW passage over Sulawesi is about 0.14. The proba-
bility of extreme rainfall during CCKW activity is about 0.06
and during CCERW activity 0.04. The probability of floods
during either CCKW or CCERW is about 0.04. Therefore,
these two tropical waves substantially increase the probability
of natural hazard occurrence and double the chance of flood
and extreme rain event development over southwestern
Sulawesi. However, based on one-tailed Student’s t test,
these changes in the probability are statistically significant
at an 80% confidence level only and should be considered
as a rough estimation.
The probability of either extreme precipitation, flood or
both occurring during joint CCKW and CCERW activity is 8
times larger than during a random DJF day. Out of 30 days of
identified cases of interactions between CCKW and CCERW
over Sulawesi, 5 days exhibited both flooding and extreme rain
and two cases were that of extreme rain without flooding. The
probability of extreme rainfall (flood) development when two
interacting tropical waves are present is relatively high and
equals 0.23 (0.17). Although MJO convective activity ( Fig. 7b)
is an important predictor for precipitation, the probability of
floods and extreme rain events within its active envelope in-
creases significantly when CCKW and CCERW are present
(from about 0.08 to about 0.2).
We have already shown that 84% of extreme rain events and
87% of Sulawesi DJF floods were preceded by positive
anomalies of zonal wind. This is further confirmed in Fig. 14 ,
which shows a composite of the time evolution of daily mean
low-level (850 hPa) wind direction and wind speed anomalies
during floods (first row) and during extreme rain events (sec-
ond row). During the floods, westerly winds are dominating,
with small contributions from other directions. Average con-
tributions of westerly wind anomalies 2 days before, 1 day
before, during, and 1 day after the flood (i.e., day 22, day 21,
day 0, and day 11) are approximately 82%, 92%, 87%, and
FIG. 11. Time evolution of TRMM precipitation anomalies during the January 2019 Makassar flood event: (a) total anomaly (annual
cycle removed), as well as wavenumber–frequency-filtered anomalies for (b) convectively coupled Kelvin waves, (c) the Madden–Julian
oscillation, and (d) convectively coupled equatorial Rossby waves. All anomalies are in mm and only positive anomalies are plotted. The
shading interval for total precipitation anomalies in (a) is 4 mm and for the equatorial waves in (b)–(d) is 1 mm. The flood zone at Makassar
is shown by a blue circle.
FIG. 12. Accumulated mesoscale convective systems (MCS)-
driven precipitation (mm) between 0730 UTC 21 Jan and
0730 UTC 22 Jan.
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72%, respectively. The biggest contribution of westerlies is
evident on day 21. During extreme rain events, the average
contribution of westerly wind anomalies from day 22t o
day 11 are about 61%, 67%, 76%, and 82%, respectively.
Thus, the westerly winds are present throughout the entire
analyzed period; the biggest contribution is evident on day 11.
Floods are associated with a prolonged period of anomalously
strong westerlies, while extreme rain events ( Fig. 14 , second
row) are linked to an abrupt increase of wind between day 0
and day 11, i.e., a 23% increase. This shows that wind con-
vergence leads the westerly wind burst. These results suggest
that floods in this area are not always preceded by extreme
rainfall and that similar to Sumatra floods ( Baranowski et al.
2020), rainfall accumulation in the preceding days plays an
important role as well. The rainfall accumulation may be as-
sociated with longer-term convective events connected to in-
traseasonal variability, such as MJO or monsoon.
Figure 15 shows TRMM daily anomalous precipitation
(Fig. 15a) and that decomposed for tropical modes ( Fig. 15b).
The precipitation anomaly peaks a day before the flood with a
mean value of around 16.4 mm ( Fig. 15a ). A similar peak but
with smaller magnitude is evident for CCKWs, suggesting that
this mode is important for flood onset. A similar pattern is
observed for extreme rain events (Fig. 15a), but the increase of
precipitation is much sharper and the value of precipitation is
larger, reaching 35 mm. This difference in precipitation be-
tween floods and extreme rain events corresponds with what
was observed for winds ( Fig. 14). The MJO and CCERW im-
pact precipitation over a slightly longer time scale. The
CCERW has the largest impact on day 21 during extreme rain
events and on day 23 during floods. This wave has a smaller
direct impact on local rainfall variability than any other,
though it has a dynamical impact, as further discussed in
section 4c on the conceptual diagram.
TRMM precipitation estimates ( Fig. 15a ) are 2.5–3 times
smaller in comparison with local mean rainfall measurements.
This is a more severe underestimation of local rainfall than in
the case of the January 2019 flood, where the precipitation
estimated by GPM was 38% lower than measured by local rain
gauges. It indicates that in this area, GPM IMERG may indeed
have closer correspondence with in situ measurements than the
TRMM data.
The large-scale atmospheric signal associated with floods or
extreme precipitation is also seen in in situ data from local
stations. Figure 15 shows the total daily precipitation anomaly
before, during, and after extreme rain events ( Fig. 15a ) and
daily average of wind speed at 10 m above the ground
(Fig. 15c). The average wind speed peaks 1 day before extreme
rainfall and during the flood. Maximum precipitation occurs
during the flooding (41 mm on average) and during the
extreme rain day (105 mm on average). The magnitude of
the signal is much smaller in the case of floods, in com-
parison to extreme rain days. On average, long-duration
rainfall accompanies both floods and extreme rainfall
events. However, extreme rainfall events are associated
with an abrupt increase of precipitation between day 21
and day 0. A gradual increase in clouds ( Fig. 15d )—a
negative sunshine duration anomaly—is evident from day 25
for floods and day 24 for extreme rain events. Therefore, the
heavy rains and floods are related to longer-scale propagating
atmospheric disturbances.
For both extreme rainfall and floods, MJO, CCKWs and
CCERW jointly contribute about 25% of the total anomaly—-
that is, slightly higher than the about 20% contribution that
was observed during the January 2019 case study (see
section 3 , Fig. 11
). For that flood, a major part of the total
precipitation signal was caused by the MCS that propagated
from the Java Sea right over southwest Sulawesi. Since MCSs
are likely to develop within the convective environment of
tropical waves ( Mapes et al. 2006 ; Yasunaga and Mapes 2012 ;
Serra et al. 2020), one could expect a contribution from a given
MCS for other floods. Some previous studies have shown that
the population of MCSs within the convective MJO envelope is
larger than for a suppressed MJO envelope ( Xu and Rutledge
2015; Dias et al. 2017 ). Indeed, for DJF 2014–19, the contri-
bution of MCSs to the total fraction of rainfall over south-
western Sulawesi increased during the presence of CCKW and
CCERWs, as well as in the active phases of MJO. While the
MCS-driven daily mean rain accumulation for the southwest-
ern Sulawesi is 10.4 mm, it increases to 13.3 mm when CCKW is
active, 12.0 mm when CCERW is active, and 14.1 mm when
MJO is in its active phases 4–6, with a maximum of 18.8 mm for
FIG. 13. The leading two EOFs of (a) convectively coupled
Kelvin waves–filtered precipitation anomalies and (b) convectively
coupled equatorial Rossby waves–filtered zonal wind anomalies.
Red (blue) shading indicate positive (negative) values.
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phase 5. This is a 15% increase for CCERW and 81% increase
for MJO phase 5.
To estimate how the frequency and intensity of MCSs
change during the presence of CCKW and CCERW, we use
the phase diagram for the convectively coupled waves similar
to that used by Sakaeda et al. (2020) . The phase of the wave
is determined based on normalized filtered precipitation
(CCKW) or filtered zonal winds (CCERW) and its normalized
tendency. Hourly values of filtered CCKW precipitation and
CCERW westerly winds over the southwestern Sulawesi were
used, together with highest precipitation MCSs that occurred
during DJF 2014–19 ( Fig. 16a ). Additionally, to extend the
analysis and generalize conclusions, we used 3-hourly TRMM
satellite data and identified ( section 2i ) high-frequency (HF)
precipitation events as a proxy of MCS for DJF 1999–2019
(Fig. 16b).
Figure 16a shows tracked highest-precipitation MCSs
(hourly accumulation) as a function of the phase of a wave. The
January 2019 flood is marked in green: during this flood, the
highest MCS-driven precipitation occurred within moistening
and wet phases of CCKW (phases 3 and 4), and strong
CCERW-driven westerly wind anomalies (phase 5).
For each wave, the majority of high HF-driven precipitation
events ( Fig. 16b ), i.e., 56%–89%, occur when CCKW nor-
malized precipitation or CCERW normalized westerly wind
anomaly is positive. This is particularly evident for CCKW.
Similarly, HF precipitation events that trigger heavy rain are
more likely to develop in the moistening and wet phases of
active CCKW and during increasing and strong CCERW-
driven westerlies (phases 3–6 in Fig. 16b ), rather than drying
and dry, decreasing and weak (phases 1–2 and 7–8 in Fig. 16b).
For both waves, the number of heavy precipitation events for
the waves with normalized amplitude larger than 1 and in
phases 3–6 is 2–14 times greater than in phases 1–2, 7, and 8.
The observed increase is the greatest for the heaviest rain
events (a magnitude of precipitation of larger than three or
four standard deviations) for CCKW.
c. Conceptual diagram
A conceptual diagram of meteorological conditions leading
to extreme rain events and floods in southwest Sulawesi is
shown in Fig. 17 . The interactions between CCKWs and
CCERWs within the MJO convective envelope are considered.
These waves support the development of a mesoscale con-
vective system, which in turn is responsible for extreme
rainfall.
The MJO is in its enhanced convective phase over the
Maritime Continent, ensuring a large-scale envelope of en-
hanced convection. MJO-associated lower-tropospheric west-
erly anomalies across the whole western Maritime Continent
lead to enhanced moisture transport into the flood region.
Large-scale convergence is observed ahead of the MJO active
phase. Then, within this large-scale MJO envelope, a CCERW
propagates westward through the region. In the meteorological
situations considered here, CCERWs are dynamical precur-
sors of extreme events, although they do not necessarily di-
rectly impact local rainfall rate on flood or extreme rain days.
Their unique contribution is to support midlevel vorticity and
the enhancement of northwesterly flow from the South China
Sea through the Karimata Strait toward the Java Sea (a wind
surge, cold-surge-like flow). Finally, CCKWs, supported by
Sumatra vortices, trigger the intense convection over south-
west Sulawesi in its convergence region and contribute to low-
level westerly jets. All these factors cause perturbations in both
dynamical and thermodynamical fields that interact with one
another and contribute to MCS development and extreme rain
FIG. 14. Composite of time evolution of low-level (850 hPa) wind direction and wind speed anomalies during (top) floods and (bottom)
extreme rain events over the southwest Sulawesi region (5 8–68S, 1198–1208E) during December–February of 1998/99–2018/19, plotted as
wind roses. Each circle represents frequency of time that the modeled wind blows from a particular direction, changing from 0% in the
center to 50% in the most outward circle. Wind speed anomalies are indicated by a color scale at an interval of 2 m s 21.
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or flood events. All play their own specific role in creating the
perfect storm conditions; however, not all of these factors have
to be present for an extreme event to occur.
5. Summary and conclusions
This study utilizes multiple sources of meteorological data to
better understand the interaction among weather phenomena
associated with extreme rainfall and floods in the area of
southwestern Sulawesi, Indonesia, in the central Maritime
Continent.
We have shown that convectively coupled equatorial waves,
such as CCKWs and CCERWs embedded within the larger-
scale envelope of the MJO, can provide a supportive envi-
ronment for extreme weather-driven events. It appears that
both CCKWs and CCERWs increase the probability of ex-
treme rainfall and flooding. The Makassar flood of 22 January
2019, which was the largest flood ever observed in this area, is
an example of the interaction of precipitation modes with
different temporal and spatial scales. Besides the large-scale
modes (MJO, CCERW, and CCKW), an important factor
leading to this flood was the presence of a mesoscale convective
system, which contributed to a large fraction of the rainfall
observed for this case. Over Indonesia, MCSs are often tied to
convection over the mountains and precipitation related to
these systems intensifies during interaction with CCKWs, es-
pecially for the large islands such as Sumatra or Borneo.
Pramuwardani et al. (2020) show the increase of the after-
noon (0600 UTC) and early morning (2100 UTC) precipitation
maximum during the passage of Kelvin waves for Makassar as
well, which indicates that Kelvin waves could contribute to
flooding in southwest Sulawesi through interaction with
mountain convection and enhancement of the diurnal cycle.
However, while the radar observations indicated a precipita-
tion maximum to the west of the mountain ridge ( Fig. 2 ), the
system that provided the majority of precipitation formed over
the ocean in an area with CCKW-related low-level conver-
gence ( Fig. 12 ). Therefore, at least in this case, local diurnal
precipitation did not play a major role. This is in agreement
with Sakaeda et al. (2020), who show that while the majority of
Sulawesi shows the ‘‘land-type’’ diurnal response to Kelvin
waves, with intensification of the diurnal cycle ahead of wave
convergence, on the southwestern tip of the island the maxi-
mum response is similar to that of the area over the ocean.
FIG. 15. (a) Total in situ–measured and satellite (TRMM) daily precipitation anomaly (mm day21) in December–
February of 1998/99–2018/19 before, during, and after extreme rain events and floods in southwest Sulawesi region.
(b) TRMM daily precipitation anomaly (mm day 21) filtered for convectively coupled equatorial Kelvin waves
(CCKW), Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO), and convectively coupled equatorial Rossby waves (CCERW).
(c) Daily average of wind speed 1.5 m above the ground (m s
21). (d) Daily sunshine duration anomaly (h).
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FIG. 16. (a) MCS-driven and (b) high-frequency (HF) severe precipitation with respect to (left) convectively
coupled equatorial Kelvin waves (CCKWs) and (right) convectively coupled equatorial Rossby waves (CCERWs).
Hours of MCS-driven precipitation in (a) and the middle of each high-frequency event in (b) that exceeded the
threshold value defined by two (blue stars), three (red crosses), and four (black circles) standard deviations cal-
culated for the entire study periods are plotted. The study period for MCSs in (a) is December–February (DJF)
2014–19, while for the study period for HF events in (b) is DJF 1999–2019. Green circles mark the January 2019 case
study, analyzed in section 3. Local wave phase diagrams, adapted from Sakaeda et al. (2020), are made using hourly
accumulated precipitation from GPM satellite in (a) and 3-hourly TRMM satellite precipitation in (b), filtered for
CCKWs in the left panels, and (a) hourly and (b) 3-hourly westerly wind anomalies from ERA5, filtered for
CCERWs in the right panels. Both wave-filtered rain rate or wave-filtered westerly wind anomaly and its tendency
(the derivative of CCKW or CCERW with respect to time) are normalized by their standard deviations during the
study period at each box. Negative values of the wave tendency indicate that the enhanced convective envelope of a
wave is decaying and positive values indicate that it is amplifying. The southwest Sulawesi region used for calcu-
lating CCKW, MCSs, and HF-driven precipitation, as well as CCERW-driven westerly wind anomaly is defined as
4.8758–6.1258S, 118.8758–120.1258E.
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Therefore, the precise location of precipitation related to
MCSs over this region may be difficult to predict.
However, results indicate that in the studied area, the av-
erage extreme MCS-driven precipitation increases during the
presence of MJO, CCKWs, and CCERWs. We also find that
the population of high-frequency organized systems within the
active CCKW and CCERW phase is larger than within the
suppressed phase. Therefore, although the precise location of
MCSs-driven precipitation is difficult to predict, examining
larger-scale tropical disturbances that increase high-frequency
extreme precipitation could help in more accurate predictions
of future extreme precipitation and flood events. We aim to
further explore the relationship between equatorial waves and
higher-frequency organized tropical convection over south-
western Sulawesi in a follow-up study.
Analysis of the January 2019 case study also indicates that
wind surges ( Lim et al. 2017 ) and cross-equatorial cold surges
(Xavier et al. 2020) are not in fact totally distinct features from
convectively coupled equatorial waves. In this case, both
modes were potentially attributed to the CCERW-driven in-
tensification of northerlies over the South China Sea.
Results indicate that while the MJO is a key factor for
tropical predictability, consideration of the convectively cou-
pled equatorial waves significantly increases the predictability
of extreme weather. Our findings are in agreement with the
conclusions of Baranowski et al. (2020) that CCKWs
constitute a critical dynamical predictor for flood onset in
Sumatra and Lubis and Respati (2021) that CCKWs and
CCERWs increase the probability of extreme rain events over
Java, as well as Ferrett et al. (2019) who link extreme precip-
itation in both the western and eastern parts of the Maritime
Continent with high-amplitude Kelvin waves.
Our results suggest that it is possible to improve opera-
tional forecasting of extreme precipitation and floods by
considering the dynamics of convectively coupled equato-
rially trapped waves.
Acknowledgments. This research has been supported in part
by NSF Grant 1724741 ‘‘Equatorial Line Observations (ELO)
field campaign during the International Years of Maritime
Continent’’ program managed by Eric T. DeWeaver and by a
subsidy of the Ministry of Education and Science in Poland for
the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
D.S.P., J.A.I.P., E.M., and E.S. were supported by the Years of
Maritime Continent (YMC) project from the Indonesian
Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics
(BMKG). B.L. and D.B.B. were supported by the Foundation
for Polish Science. The ‘‘Multi-scale interactions over the
Maritime Continent and their role in weather extremes over
Central and Eastern Europe’’ project is carried out within the
Operational Programme Smart Growth 2014-2020, Measure
4.4: Increasing the human potential in R&D sector, HOMING
program of the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed
by the European Union under the European Regional
Development Fund. M.K.F. and J.M.S. acknowledge support
from the NRL Base program PE0601153N. P.J.F. also ac-
knowledges support from the NRL (Grant N00173-18-1-
G009). Z.F. at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
(PNNL) is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office
of Science Biological and Environmental Research as part of
the Regional and Global Modeling and Analysis program.
PNNL is operated for the Department of Energy by Battelle
Memorial Institute under Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830.
A.J.M acknowledges support from the Natural Environment
Research Council NE/R012431/1 and NE/R016704/1. ERA5,
the fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the
global climate, was obtained from Copernicus Climate Change
Service Climate Data Store. The TRMM 3B42v7 data were
provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and PPS,
which develop and compute the TRMM3B42v7 as a contri-
bution to the TRMM project, which is archived at the NASA
GES DISC. The Group for High-Resolution Sea Surface
Temperature (GHRSST) Multiscale Ultrahigh Resolution
(MUR) SST data were obtained from the NASA EOSDIS
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center
(PO.DAAC) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
California. We are grateful to Meteorological Service
FIG. 17. (right) Schematic depiction of the key processes re-
sponsible for extreme rainfall events and floods in southwest
Sulawesi (top) 3 days before (day 23), (middle) 1 day before (day
21), and (bottom) during the event (day 0). Abbreviations are
as follows: C—convergence in the CCKW; ER—CCERW;
LLJ—low-level jet; and SV—Sumatra vortex. The vectors and
shading show winds at 850 hPa, the full-circle dashed arrows rep-
resent the equatorial Rossby wave vortices, and the curved dashed
arrows represent cross-equatorial flow. The location of the meso-
scale convective system is qualitatively depicted by a yellow ellipse.
(left) Time evolution of approximated zonal wind anomaly (m s
21,
green line) and precipitation (mm, purple line) in southwest
Sulawesi area.
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Singapore for providing the cold surge index. We thank the
two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions helped im-
prove and clarify this manuscript.
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