Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Datangnya hujan ringan saat kami berjoging justru membuat udaranya terasa segar. - The arrival of light rain while we are jogging actually makes the air feel fresh.

Nominalizes the verb (makes it function like a noun).
Makes it specific/definite, like the in English, not just an arrival but the arrival (a particular one the speaker has in mind).

You could paraphrase the beginning of the sentence as:

Kedatangan hujan ringan saat kami berjoging…
(The arrival of light rain while we were jogging…)

Why does the sentence start with Datangnya hujan ringan instead of Hujan ringan datang?

Both are grammatically okay, but the focus and style are slightly different.

Datangnya hujan ringan saat kami berjoging justru membuat udaranya terasa segar.
Literally: The arrival of light rain while we were jogging actually made the air feel fresh.

Here, Datangnya hujan ringan acts like a noun phrase and is the subject of membuat (made). It sounds a bit more descriptive / narrative, like written storytelling.

Compare:

Hujan ringan yang datang saat kami berjoging justru membuat udaranya terasa segar.
(The light rain that came while we were jogging actually made the air feel fresh.)

The meaning is very close. Starting with Datangnya… is just a stylistic way to emphasize the event of its coming rather than just stating “it rained.”

Could I reorder it to Saat kami berjoging, hujan ringan justru membuat udaranya terasa segar? Is that still correct?

Yes, that is correct and natural:

Saat kami berjoging, hujan ringan justru membuat udaranya terasa segar.

Differences:

Your version is slightly simpler: no nominalization (Datangnya) and a clearer time clause at the beginning.
The original version puts more emphasis on “the arrival” as a specific event; your version focuses more on the time (while we were jogging).

Both are fine in everyday Indonesian. The original sounds a bit more literary or descriptive.

What is the difference between saat, ketika, and waktu in this context?

All three can often be translated as when / while and can work in this sentence:

saat kami berjoging…
ketika kami berjoging…
waktu kami berjoging…

Nuances:

saat – very common, slightly neutral/formal, works well in writing and speech.
ketika – also common, a bit more formal / bookish, frequent in written Indonesian.
waktu – literally time; as a conjunction it’s more casual/colloquial in many regions.

So:

Written essay/story: saat or ketika fits nicely.
Casual speech: waktu kami lagi jogging… is very natural.

Why is kami used instead of kita?

Indonesian distinguishes two types of “we”:

kami = we (excluding the person being spoken to)
kita = we (including the person being spoken to)

Using kami here implies:

The speaker and some other people were jogging.
The listener was not part of that jogging group.

If the listener had been jogging together with the speaker, you would normally say:

…saat kita berjoging…
(…when we were jogging (you and I)…)

What does berjoging mean exactly, and why is there a ber- prefix?

Berjoging means to jog.

joging is a loanword from English jogging.
The prefix ber- is a common way to form intransitive verbs (actions you do without a direct object), e.g.:
- berjalan – to walk
- berenang – to swim
- berlari – to run

So berjoging is “to be in the state of jogging / to do jogging.”

In everyday conversation, people also often say:

lagi jogging or sedang jogging
without ber-, especially in casual speech. The version with ber- looks more standard/formal.

Why is joging spelled with one g, not jogging?

Indonesian often adapts foreign spellings to fit Indonesian pronunciation and spelling rules.

English jogging → Indonesian joging

Double consonants like gg are usually simplified, and the ending -ing is often written as -ing or -ing with Indonesian pronunciation, but here it has become -ing / -ing simplified as -ing / -ing; in practice you’ll see:

joging – standard KBBI spelling.
jogging – also widely seen (in ads, social media, etc.), but less “official.”

For learning purposes, berjoging with one g matches the standard dictionary form.

What does justru add to the sentence?

Justru expresses a meaning like:

actually, in fact, on the contrary, instead

It suggests that the result is the opposite of what you might expect.

Without justru:

Datangnya hujan ringan … membuat udaranya terasa segar.
= The light rain made the air feel fresh. (neutral statement)

With justru:

…justru membuat udaranya terasa segar.
= The light rain actually made the air feel fresh (even though you might expect rain to be unpleasant).

It highlights the surprising / contrary-to-expectation aspect of the situation.

How is membuat working grammatically here? Is it the same as English “make”?

Yes, membuat here functions like English to make or to cause in a causative sense.

Structure:

[Subject] + membuat + [object] + [adjective / state]

In the sentence:

Datangnya hujan ringan … = subject
membuat = made / caused
udaranya = object (the thing affected)
terasa segar = resulting state (felt fresh)

So the pattern is:

X membuat Y terasa segar.
= X made Y feel fresh.

Other examples:

Berita itu membuat saya sedih.
(That news made me sad.)
Latihan rutin membuat tubuhmu kuat.
(Regular exercise makes your body strong.)

Why is it udaranya, not just udara?

Udara means air (in general).
Udaranya adds the suffix -nya, which here makes it specific:

udara = air (in general, non-specific)
udaranya = the air (the particular air in that situation)

So udaranya terasa segar is more like:

the air felt fresh (the air around us at that time) not air feels fresh (in general).

The -nya can be understood as a kind of definite article (the), or as referring to the air there and then that both speaker and listener can imagine.

What is the difference between terasa and merasa in udaranya terasa segar?

merasa = to feel (what a person feels)
terasa = to feel / to be felt (how something feels)

In your sentence:

udaranya terasa segar
Literally: the air feels fresh / is felt as fresh.

Here, udara is the thing that has the quality; it’s not a person. So you use terasa.

Compare:

Saya merasa lelah. – I feel tired. (subject is a person)
Kursi ini terasa keras. – This chair feels hard. (subject is a thing)
Udaranya terasa dingin. – The air feels cold.

So terasa is correct because udara is the thing that has the “fresh” sensation.

Is hujan ringan the same as gerimis? Are there nuance differences?

They’re similar but not exactly the same.

hujan ringan = light rain
- More neutral/technical.
- Can be used in weather forecasts and standard descriptions.
gerimis = drizzle
- Suggests very fine, light rain.
- Often sounds more colloquial or descriptive.

You could say:

Datangnya gerimis saat kami berjoging justru membuat udaranya terasa segar.

This would sound slightly more vivid, like tiny drops of rain, but the core idea stays the same. Hujan ringan is a bit broader: it could be any rain that is not heavy, not just fine misty drizzle.

There’s no past tense in the Indonesian sentence. How do we know it means “while we were jogging” and not “while we are jogging”?

Indonesian usually does not mark tense with verb changes. Instead, context (and sometimes time words) tell you whether it’s past, present, or future.

Saat kami berjoging can mean:

when we jog / while we are jogging (present/habitual)
when we were jogging (past)

In this sentence, English naturally chooses the past (while we were jogging) because:

Datangnya hujan ringan and membuat udaranya terasa segar describe a completed event.
In context (storytelling, narration), listeners assume it’s something that already happened.

If you need to be explicit, you can add a time word:

Kemarin, saat kami berjoging, hujan ringan justru membuat udaranya terasa segar.
(Yesterday, while we were jogging…)

Does this sentence sound formal, or would people say it in everyday conversation?

It sounds natural and standard, but slightly narrative / descriptive, like something you might find in:

a personal essay
a story
a reflective blog post

In very casual spoken Indonesian, people might say something more like:

Waktu kita/jkami lagi jogging, malah kena hujan dikit-dikit, tapi udaranya jadi seger banget.

Key differences in a casual version:

waktu instead of saat
lagi jogging instead of berjoging
malah instead of justru
seger banget instead of terasa segar

Your original sentence is a good standard written Indonesian model, clear and correct.