Tornado damages dozens of homes and a mosque in Java, Indonesia
A tornado struck the island of Java, Indonesia, on September 16, 2025, damaging dozens of homes and a mosque. The full extent of damage is still being assessed.
Tornado damage in Darul Mawar village, Tunjung Teja District, Serang Regency, Indonesia, September 16, 2025. Credit: FPMKI
The tornado hit Kampung Darul Mawar, a rural community in Tunjung Teja District, Serang Regency, Banten Province, during the afternoon hours today, tearing roofs from houses and damaging a mosque that serves as a local gathering point.
Emergency assessments are underway, but as of this writing, no official figures on casualties or displacement have been confirmed.
Localized tornadoes, known in Indonesia as puting beliung, occur frequently during transitional monsoon periods and can cause significant destruction in short bursts.
Serang Regency and the wider Banten Province in Java are regularly affected by such events, with the Indonesian National Disaster Management Authority (BNPB) recording dozens of cases annually. Recent research on the phenomenon shows Java has the highest frequency of localized tornadoes, with many of them occurring in low-lying, flat terrain.
Although typically short-lived, these tornadoes can devastate villages, damaging homes, schools, and mosques built with lightweight materials.
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
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