The Central Weather Bureau yesterday issued a sea alert for Typhoon Muifa and said chances of rain today were high nationwide because of the system’s circumfluence.
The bureau said the sea alert applied to areas off the nation’s northern and northeastern coasts.
For today, the bureau said the northern and northeastern regions could start seeing rain around noon. Southern regions could also see rain starting tonight.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
As of 8:30pm, Muifa’s center was 710km east of Taipei, moving west-northwest toward Okinawa, Japan, at a speed of 11kph. Maximum wind speeds were 53m per second, while the radius of the storm was 280km.
The bureau said the typhoon would be closer to Taiwan tomorrow, but whether it would issue a land warning depended on the force of the high air pressure over the Pacific Ocean.
Lin Hsiu-wen (林秀雯), deputy director of the bureau’s Weather Forecast Center, said the typhoon was likely to turn north after passing through Okinawa and Miyako Islands.
She said the typhoon would likely move farther away from Taiwan on Sunday.
The storm could come close to the northern coast of Taiwan, she said.
“However, if the high air pressure is stronger than expected, the storm could make landfall in the northern parts of the nation,” she said.
Although Muifa is not likely to make landfall, the bureau warned that its circumfluence and the southwest air stream that generally comes after the departure of a typhoon will continue to bring rain to the country.
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