Forecasters make U-turn on weather predictions

The sun looks set to shine today despite a series of weather warnings issued yesterday and Sunday by the Central Weather Bureau.

The bureau had predicted that places in central, northern and northeastern Taiwan would experience heavy rain over the next few days. However, forecasters said yesterday that approaching fronts have been weakened, leaving the weather to break over the sea rather than on land.

According to bureau statistics from Sunday to yesterday, more than 80mm rainfall fell on the offshore island of Kinmen, while only 20mm fell on central Taiwan. In the north, rainfall stood at about 10mm.

Officials said that the weather today would be moderate, with the chances of rain limited.

According to Daniel Wu (吳德榮), deputy director of the bureau's weather forecast center, rainfall today would be much less than yesterday's.

Wu said that another strong weather system near Guam, which has the potential to turn into a typhoon, was heading west for Taiwan and will hit the island in the next few days.

"No matter what, before the weather system affects Taiwan, we will have fine weather for the next three or four days," Wu said yesterday.

Tomorrow, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will hold a meeting on handling the impending water shortage.

Although rain early this month raised water levels at major reservoirs in the north, spokesman for the ministry's Water Resources Agency Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢) said yesterday that the possibility of lifting the first stage of water conservation measures would not be discussed until early next month.

"It's still to early to say whether the drought pressure will be eased or not. In early May, we will review rainfall this month and the situations major reservoirs are in," Chen said.

Since March 7, the first stage of water conservation measures has been imposed in northern counties -- where water pressure was reduced between 11pm and 5am.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday reminded residents to be alert to the impeding drought because weather conditions varied.

"We are still fighting against the drought because the rainfall last month was much less than last year," Ma said.

Meanwhile, Taipei City Government plans to carry out its annual flood-prevention practice by the end of next month in order to enhance its capability to deal with typhoons over the summer.