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Tropical storm prompts bureau ocean warning

The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued a sea alert for Tropical Storm Kalmaegi at 2:30pm yesterday as it began approaching the nation’s east coast.

The bureau was originally planning to make the announcement yesterday morning, but the storm’s rather slow and wayward movements meant the bureau decided to hold the warning until the afternoon.

Daniel Wu (吳德榮), the CWB’s weather forecast center director, said the storm had been “stuck” in the same spot for 24 hours, before it finally began moving yesterday afternoon.

As of 8:30pm yesterday, the center of the storm was located 340km southeast of Ouluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving north at a speed of 20kph.

Maximum wind speeds near the center of the storm were measuring approximately 120kph, while at the radius of the storm were 90kph.

Kalmaegi’s circumfluence was likely to bring heavy rain to northeastern and eastern regions starting yesterday evening, Wu said.

The bureau forecast that the storm would begin to pick up pace because of the guiding air stream of the Pacific Ocean.

It estimated that Kalmaegi would move closer to the east coast either tonight or tomorrow.

“Whether the circumfluence of the storm will make landfall requires further observations,” he said. “It is too early to know when we will issue a land alert.”

While the storm will continue to bring torrential rain to the east coast both today and tomorrow, people on the west coast should prepare for rain brought by the southwestern air stream that will arrive after the storm moves on.

While tropical storms can produce heavy storms and strong winds, they are also able to produce large ocean waves and tidal surges.

Tropical storms generally develop over large bodies of warm water.

Coastal regions can receive significant damage from a tropical storm as the storms generally do not lose their strength until they reach land.

Aside from causing damage, tropical storms can sometimes relieve drought conditions.
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