The public should be aware of Tropical Storm Haitang, which is growing in strength as it approaches Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
And while the first potential typhoon of the season to threaten Taiwan was moving west, a new record high temperature for the year of 36.8?C was recorded at noon yesterday in Taipei City. Similar temperatures over the next few days will continue to make life uncomfortable -- bureau officials said that it is not easy for the Taipei Basin to release accumulated heat.
The highest temperatures recorded throughout the rest of Taiwan yesterday did not exceed 35?C.
COOLING OFF
The forecasters said that the influence of a high-pressure cell in the Pacific Ocean would be offset by cooling afternoon showers in the north of the country.
Tropical Storm Haitang, which was about 2,800km east of Taiwan yesterday, is growing in size, with a radius measured yesterday at 150km. The storm is expected to travel west for at least five days before it begins to affect Taiwan's weather.
"With the velocity of Haitang varying only slightly, we predict that it will be very close to Taiwan from next Monday to Wednesday," forecaster Chen Yi-liang (
The bureau said a more accurate prediction would be announced on the weekend.
Daniel Wu (
"Haitang's peripheral currents might affect the weather in Taiwan as early as this Sunday," he said.
Yesterday, legislators and environmentalists urged the government to apply preventive strategies to protect the public from typhoon damage.
Taiwan suffers from an average of 3.5 typhoons and dozens of damaging downpours causing NT$12.8 billion (US$400 million) in losses annually. Global climate change is thought to be worsening the situation.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Last year, nine typhoons struck Taiwan, resulting in devastating floods, mudslides and other disasters. A flood in central Taiwan on July 2 last year inundated 659km2 of land. Last month, heavy rains in central and southern parts of the nation claimed 14 lives and resulted in losses exceeding NT$1.4 billion.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang To-far (
Lin I-chen (
"So far, we don't have basic data for any devastating flood. Without knowing the extent and the mechanism of flooding, how can the government manage water properly?" Lin asked.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS