A low pressure system has formed east of the Philippines with the potential to become a tropical storm, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
At press time, the system was 1,200km off the southeast coast of Eluanbi (鵝鑾鼻) and was gradually moving west.
The system may become a tropical storm today, but it is not expected to hit Taiwan. A high pressure system in the Pacific Ocean has weakened, meaning the storm will likely move northeasterly toward Japan, the bureau said.
However, the system will continue to influence weather in Taiwan today, with high chances of showers and heavy rain across the country.
The bureau retained a heavy rain alert for the north and northeast yesterday.
Between 12am on Wednesday and 4:30pm yesterday the highest rainfall was recorded in Yilan County’s Gulu (古魯), which received 148.5mm. Gulu was followed by Taipei City’s Neihu District (內湖) and Taipei County’s Sijhih (汐止), with 124mm and 123.5mm respectively.
Regarding the weather forecast for the Deaflympics opening ceremony on Saturday, Lin Hsiu-wen (林秀雯), deputy director of the weather forecast center, said the rain was expected to ease up as the low pressure system moves away from Taiwan.
“If we are lucky, we’ll have cloudy skies with relatively stable weather,” Lin said. “If not, we might see showers, but we won’t see heavy rain.”
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