Tropical storm Conson turned into a typhoon early yesterday but poses no direct threat to Taiwan for the moment, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
Conson struck the eastern part of the Philippines yesterday, bringing heavy rains and official warnings of floods and possible landslides.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Central Weather Bureau forecaster Lee Hsiang-yuan (李湘源) said that at 2pm, Conson was about 910km southeast of Hengchun (恆春), Pingtung County. It was moving west at a speed of 21kph, with a radius of 120km.
According to the bureau’s potential track forecast, the typhoon would pass through the Philippines and head toward Guangdong Province in China.
Lee said two factors would determine Conson’s path after it passes the Philippines.
“The first will be if the center of the typhoon changes after it passes over land and the second is the strength of the air pressure in the Pacific Ocean,” he said.
Lee said the typhoon would move north toward Taiwan if high air pressure in the Pacific Ocean weakened, but would continue to move west if the air pressure remained strong. Nevertheless, Conson’s peripheral cloud system had begun to affect Taiwan, bringing rain to the southeast.
In Manila, stormy weather ahead of Conson forced schools to close, international flights to divert and ships to be barred from leaving port.
There were no immediate reports of casualties as Conson swept westward packing maximum sustained winds of 120kph.
“Definitely certain areas of Bicol have been hit,” weather forecaster Cris Perez said as the typhoon swept over a 300km front and clipped the Bicol region southeast of Manila late yesterday afternoon.
He said the eye of the typhoon passed within 40km of the city of Daet at 4pm and the weather service reported heavy rain over the area.
The typhoon was set to hit the main island of Luzon last night.
The civil defense office said yesterday there were no immediate reports of casualties in Bicol or elsewhere with the arrival of Conson.
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