The Central Weather Bureau yesterday said it could issue a sea alert for Tropical Storm Kai-Tak today, the season’s 13th tropical storm, as it threatens sea areas near southern Taiwan.
Kai-Tak strengthened to a tropical storm at 8am yesterday. As of 5pm, the center of the storm was located 710km northeast of Manila. It was moving northwesterly at a speed of 13kph. The radius of the storm has reached 100km, packing sustained winds of 64.8kph, with gusts of up to 90kph, the bureau said.
Bureau forecaster Lin Pin-yu (林秉煜) said Kai-Tak’s circumfluence would reach Taiwan tomorrow if the system’s path and speed did not change, increasing the chance of heavy rain in southern, northern and eastern regions.
The bureau said the radius of the storm would sweep through the Bashi Channel and the Hengchun Peninsula before moving toward Fujian Province, China. The storm is expected to come very close to the Hengchun Peninsula on Thursday and could make landfall there, the bureau said.
The bureau said it could issue a sea alert today, which would apply to eastern and southern parts of the country.
Lin said Kai-Tak was not likely to turn into a typhoon by the time it reaches Taiwan, adding that the storm would gradually move away from Taiwan on Friday.
Today, chances for afternoon thundershowers are high in northern, central, southern and northeastern regions. Cloudy to sunny skies are forecast for other regions as well as on the islands of Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.
In related news, the average price of vegetables has soared to NT$41.82 per kilogram this month as fruit and vegetable supplies were drastically reduced because of the torrential rain brought by Typhoon Saola as well as heavy rainfall earlier this year.
The Taipei City Market Administration Office reported that the average volume of fruit and vegetables was 653 tonnes earlier this month, the second-lowest in the past decade.
The lowest volume on record, 639 tonnes, was set on Oct. 7, 2007, when the nation was hit by Typhoon Krosa.
The office said it would take action to prevent vegetable prices from rising further.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
RSS