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Kalmaegi to bring heavy rains and strong winds: CWB

The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Kalmaegi yesterday as it brought heavy rain and strong winds to eastern, northern and central Taiwan.

The storm was upgraded to a typhoon yesterday afternoon, but then downgraded to a tropical storm again later last night after it changed its structure when its perimeter made landfall, the bureau said last night.

The CWB warned of heavy or extremely heavy showers in the southeastern, central and southern regions, adding that even after the storm leaves Taiwan’s northern region today, heavy rains could continue until tomorrow.

At 8:30pm yesterday, the center of Kalmaegi was located 50km southeast of Hualien. The storm was continuing to move north-northwest at a speed of 20kph.

The maximum wind speeds near the center were 137kph while the radius of the typhoon had increased to 100km.

The bureau also expanded its land alert areas to include Hualien, Ilan, Keelung, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Taichung. Residents in those areas should be prepared for heavy rain and strong winds, it said.

Daniel Wu (吳德榮), director of the CWB’s weather forecast center, said the storm was “small but very solid-structured.”

However, because the storm’s center was very close to Taiwan, the rain and wind it could generate would be considerable, he said.

Wu said that the storm’s perimeter was likely to leave the country this morning, but warned that the irregularity of Kalmaegi’s movements made it difficult to predict its path.

Its speed had also varied. Between 8am and 10am yesterday, its speed went up to 24kph, then fell at one point to 10kph, before climbing back up to 20kph.

Ilan County Government closed government offices and schools at 3pm yesterday. At press time, no city or county government had declared a typhoon day for today.
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