Moon could be obscured on Thursday

The full-moon glow on the Mid-Autumn Festival this Thursday is likely to be reflected on the back of a veil of clouds in the north in the midst of an approaching tropical storm, as indicated by yesterday's Central Weather Bureau report.

The weather system, named Maemi (梅米), was 1,300km from Taiwan yesterday, forecasters said. The speed of the tropical depression, which has a radius of 200km, yesterday picked up speed throughout the day from 19kph to 21kph.

According to the bureau, Maemi is expected to be some 530km southeast of the Ryukyu Islands this morning. Forecasters said Maemi's direction shifted, heading to the northwest. At this bearing, a sea warning might be issued this evening to alert seafarers near Pengjia islet (彭佳嶼), Keelung County as the system would pass over Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan on Thursday.

Whether the depression would grow into a typhoon and make landfall, bringing much-needed rain to the country's northern areas remained uncertain, bureau officials said yesterday.

"The weather in the north and northeast will be affected by [Maemi's] peripheral winds. This will create clouds and some rainfall," Lee Hsiang-yuan (李湘源), a weather forecaster at the bureau, said.

In central and southern Taiwan, the report said, there will be rain on Thursday afternoon. However, the weather is likely to remain clear for festival moon-gazers.