The Central Weather Bureau is to launch a new early warning system on May 1 to alert people about approaching thunderstorms or other types of drastic weather that could threaten lives or cause damage to property, the bureau’s director-general said yesterday.
The Weather Monitoring and Automatic Warning System is the product of almost three years of research and development, Shin Tzay-chyn (辛在勤) said.
Unlike the existing instant weather data broadcasting mechanism, the new system was developed to target drastic weather, he said.
“Once it senses possible hail or thunderstorms in a certain area, it will release a warning signal,” Shin said.
For example, atmospheric convection often forms in the Taiwan Strait during the rainy season between June and July creating thunderstorm cells that move into Taiwan within two to three hours, bringing heavy rain and, in some cases, thunder and lightning, Shin said.
With the new early warning system, the bureau can alert people living in areas that could be hit by bad weather and warn them to take precautions, he said.
Bureau Forecast Center Director Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典) said on Facebook yesterday that the new early warning system, which he called the “big thunderstorm instant warning system,” will release instant data about heavy rain, strong winds, hail and thunder, as well as an early warning of changes to the weather in the next one to three hours.
The system can issue warnings to people living in the affected areas, Cheng said.
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