The mercury is expected to drop in the northern parts of the country later this week as another cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Thursday, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
The bureau said daytime temperatures began rising yesterday after the cold air mass that lingered over the nation at the weekend weakened. However, chances of showers also rose nationwide as clouds in the south moved north.
Residents in the northern coast and mountainous areas in central and southern Taiwan could experience heavy rain, it said.
Photo: CNA
The bureau said rainy weather in northern and eastern regions would continue until the weekend because of the cold air mass, with nighttime temperatures dropping as low as 11°C.
Meanwhile, people in Taiwan will have a chance to see another total lunar eclipse on Saturday, the bureau said.
The first total lunar eclipse this year was on June 16.
Cheng Chen-fong (鄭振豐), a specialist at the bureau’s Astronomical Observatory, said this time was different because people would actually witness the complete process of the total lunar eclipse, which would last six hours. The last time such a phenomenon was observed in Taiwan was on July 16, 2000, he said, adding that it would not occur again until Jan. 31, 2018.
The bureau said the moon would start moving into the earth’s penumbra at 7:31pm.
First contact, which occurs when the earth’s penumbra makes contact with the outer limb of the moon, would result in a missing corner on the right side of the moon. The phenomenon would occur at 8:45pm.
Cheng said the corner would slowly expand until the moon completely enters the earth’s umbra, adding that a total lunar eclipse would be visible by around 10:06pm.
The total eclipse will last until 10:58pm, when the moon will start leaving the earth’s umbra and be completely out of it by 1:31am. The bureau also said the eclipse would be visible to the naked eye, although observers were advised to use binoculars to get a better view.
As rainy weather is forecast for northern and eastern regions as well as mountainous areas in central and southern Taiwan this weekend, residents in the plains areas of central and southern Taiwan have a better chance of witnessing the lunar eclipse.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times