As the nation braces for phase-three water rationing — set to begin next week — a National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) research team yesterday predicted a delay in the start of the plum rain season, and that the amount of rain would be reduced by 25 percent.
Citing data produced from surveys between 1982 and 2012, NTNU associate Earth science professor Huang Wan-ju (黃婉如) said the plum rain season has shortened from 20 days to about 15 days since 2008.
In addition, the data showed that cold air streams above the nation have grown weaker over the years, while hot air currents have moved north — from 23.1° north latitude to 25° north, where the streams collide to create the plum rain, Huang said.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
The trend suggests that the chances of Taiwan receiving plum rain are diminishing, Huang added.
Also, seasonal rainfall has become stronger and more haphazard, increasing sediment buildup in reservoirs, making it difficult for them to store water and causing downpours to more frequently flow directly to the sea, she said.
She said the plum rain season has been pushed back from the middle of next month to the end of next month , which means that the nation is likely to experience longer periods of water shortages.
The phenomenon could be partly attributed to the pace at which temperatures are rising in the western Pacific Ocean — which is two to three times faster than in other areas in the world — since the same problems also exist in the southwestern coastal provinces of China, which are generally on the same latitude as Taiwan, she said.
Asked whether these problems would bring intensified periods of water supply shortages or possible droughts for southern Taiwan, Huang said that southern Taiwan still has convectional rains as a water supply source, and that the question could only be answered after further analysis.
Other findings by the research team include the growing occurrence of “dipoles,” polarized weather patterns on the eastern and western coasts of the US, as witnessed over the past two years.
Based on simulations of 17 weather patterns, Huang’s team discovered that a drop in coastal seawater temperatures in East Asia has changed atmospheric circulation, resulting in prolonged droughts and heavy snow in the US’ west and east coasts respectively.
Simulations also showed the researchers that the occurrences of dipoles relate to the amount of fossil fuels used in an area, indicating that the use of fossil fuels could have caused the extreme weather patterns.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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