The recent cold spell has caused agricultural losses exceeding NT$800 million, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday. Also, the Central Weather Bureau warned that next cold mass might arrive on Friday and it might become wet and cold again over the weekend.
Bureau forecasters said yesterday that residents in northern Taiwan will likely enjoy the sunshine yesterday and today only. Rain is expected for tomorrow. However, temperatures will stay at comfortable 25?C during daytime, the bureau said.
The temperature is expected to drop on Friday, and the rainy conditions will likely continued. On average across the country, the temperature will decrease by six to eight degrees.
Recent cold weather has caused milkfish and clam stocks to dwindle in western coastal areas of Chiayi and Yunlin counties.
"We've experience a die-off of milkfish recently. The price has doubled," said Yen Chin-chung (
According to Yen, the wholesale price for milkfish was about NT$30 for 600g, but yesterday it exceeded NT$60. Yen said that in the market, the price for 600g even neared NT$100, the highest price in the past eight years.
Council officials estimate that the aquaculture sector suffered losses of about NT$5.7 million, while in the agricultural sector, crops covering roughly 13,377 hectares of land been damaged by the weather.
The latest statistics released yesterday by the council indicate that the continuous cold, rainy days since middle of last month had caused agricultural losses totaling NT$876.6 million. Council officials said financial subsidies would be given to affected farmers after a loss assessment was made.
As of Sunday, 77 people have died as a result of bad weather, local media reported. In addition, the number of people visiting hospitals tripled on average across the country. The administration of Taroko National Park yesterday announced that the park would be temporarily closed because of the 30cm of snow that had accumulated.
"The decision was made for the sake of safety. Taiwan is a subtropical country. Most people lack experience in climbing mountains covered in snow," said Huang Wen-ching (
Huang said that how long the park be closed remained uncertain.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching