The Central Weather Bureau yesterday said it is closely monitoring the development of a convective cloud system in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean, which could limit spring rainfall and worsen the nation’s drought.
Bureau forecast center director Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典) said on Facebook that the system was close to the international date line and would trigger a massive atmospheric fluctuation, in which the downdraft air current could affect local weather starting next week, possibly reducing rainfall.
“It [the phenomenon] is not good news for Taiwan, which is already suffering from a water shortage,” he said.
Photo: CNA
Cheng added that meteorologists have since spring last year offered various theories on whether the so-called “el Nino” effects would develop soon, but also ran into problems pursuing the research.
“The convection in the Central Pacific Ocean and the west wind that it caused are a signal of the intraseasonal oscillation in the short term,” he said. “In the medium and long term, the [US] National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed that el Nino is here already and would continue to develop.”
Temperatures are set to drop today due to the arrival of a cold front last night, Cheng said, adding that the cold weather would continue until Wednesday.
The bureau had said Taiwan faces a 50 percent chance of normal spring rainfall, but a 30 percent chance that rainfall would be below normal and just a 20 percent chance of surpassing norms.
The drought is not likely to ease until May, when the plum rain season begins, the bureau added.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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