More than 2,000 tourists were yesterday evacuated from Green Island (綠島) and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) ahead of the approach of Tropical Storm Lingling today.
Shipping operators dispatched additional services between Green Island, Lanyu and Taitung from 8am to noon to transport bringing travelers, returning 2,300 passengers to Taitung’s Fugang Port by noon.
Shipping services between Taitung and Green Island would be canceled today and tomorrow, while travel between Lanyu and Taiwan proper would be canceled today, the Coast Guard Administration said.
As of 2pm yesterday, Lingling’s center was 370km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and the storm was moving northeast at 12kph, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
The storm’s maximum wind speed had increased to 108kph, with the radius of the storm expanding to 150km, the bureau said.
It is expected to be close to Taiwan today and tomorrow, but its outer edge is not expected to reach Taiwan proper, although its circumfluence is expected to bring rain nationwide, it said.
Bureau forecaster Chang Cheng-chuan (張承傳) said it is unlikely the bureau would issue a sea warning.
However, Weather Forecast Center specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that a Pacific high pressure system has begun to weaken, but if the system proves not to be as weak as the bureau expects, the storm could veer toward Taiwan.
“The storm is expected to become stronger as it moves north, and we are monitoring it to see if its radius expands as it moves,” she said.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Kajiki formed early yesterday in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Its center was 1,510km southwest of Oluanpi as of 4pm.
Kajiki is expected to move closer to Taiwan on Saturday as it heads toward China’s Guangdong Province, but its trajectory could change due to traction from Lingling, Chang said
It is expected to gradually pick up the speed tomorrow and Friday, but it could weaken as it moves north, he said.
Weatherrisk Explore chief executive officer Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said that Kajiki’s trajectory is very similar to that of Typhoon Wayne in 1986.
That typhoon, which lasted for 22 days, was one of the longest-lived tropical cyclones on record in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and the bureau issued sea and land warnings for it three times, Peng said.
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BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
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