Spring this year will probably be wetter than usual but also warmer, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) forecast yesterday.
Even so, the bureau warned that water levels in the nation's reservoirs remain low after last year's drought and that people should still conserve water.
In delivering its analysis of the past year's weather, the CWB predicted a 50 percent chance of rainfall this spring being above the average of the past 52 years. Records of Taiwan's weather have been kept since 1950.
Spring precipitation in northern Taiwan usually makes up 17 percent to 18 percent of the region's annual precipitation, according to the CWB.
Last year, low rainfall in the first half of the year contributed to a drought that prompted water rationing on millions of domestic consumers in the north of the country.
"The island's precipitation over the past year was the fourth lowest in history, whereas the year's average temperature was the second highest on record," said Yeh Tien-chiang
Yeh said the nation's total precipitation last year was 1,518mm, just 70 percent of the annual average of 2,192.9mm.
Rainfall at Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan was only 56 percent of the annual average, the CWB said.
The three driest years on record are 1963 (1,376mm), 1980 (1,424mm) and 1993 (1,435mm).
Yeh said that weather in the nation's capital last year was particularly noteworthy.
"In 2002, the average temperature in Taipei hit a record high, whereas the city's precipitation was the lowest in its history," Yeh said.
The forecast for above-average temperatures next year seems to be continuing a trend seen for the past decade.
The average temperature last year was 24.280C, lower only than 1998's 24.540C, the highest on record.
Yeh said his bureau's data matched global weather patterns recently reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US
Moreover, Yeh said, the effects of the El Nino weather phenomenon would be moderate going into the start of this year.
El Nino will have little effect on spring temperatures in Taiwan but could influence rainfall, according to the CWB.
"Taiwan's precipitation rises with El Nino," Yeh said.
However, following a severe drought last year, Yeh called for the public to use water thriftily.
"The water levels in most reservoirs are still too low," Yeh said.
Meanwhile, the CWB also reported that there will be two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses this year, although they will not be observable in Taiwan.
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