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.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RSS