People living in regions north of Hualien and Greater Taichung should be prepared for strong winds and heavy rainfall tonight and tomorrow as Typhoon Matmo approaches the nation, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
The bureau issued the sea alert for the typhoon yesterday afternoon.
As of 8:30pm, the center of the typhoon was located 600km off the southeast coast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving northwesterly at 23kph. The radius of the storm has expanded from 150km to 180km.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Central Weather Bureau
Bureau forecaster Hsieh Ming-chang (謝明昌) said the bureau could issue a land alert for Matmo at 2:30am today if its path remains unchanged.
“We estimate that the typhoon is accelerating toward the coast between Hualien and Yilan,” he said, adding the sea alert applies to vessels operating in the Bashi Channel, as well as those off the southeast and northeast coasts of the nation.
East coast residents should expect strong winds and waves today as the typhoon nears, he said.
The radius of the storm is forecast to cover the area north of Hualien and Greater Taichung on Wednesday, and residents in these areas should be on alert for heavy rainfall and strong winds, Hsieh said.
Southwesterly winds would increase as the typhoon begins to gradually move away from Taiwan proper, bringing heavy rainfall to the mountainous areas of southern Taiwan, he said.
The sea near the Taiwan proper could be out of the storm’s area of effect by Thursday, Hsieh said.
Though the bureau has yet to provide rainfall estimates for each region, records from previous typhoons that made landfall between Yilan and Hualien showed Matmo has the potential to bring torrential rainfall to regions north of Hualien and Greater Taichung, Hsieh said.
The accumulated rainfall in those regions between tonight and tomorrow could reach 350mm, he said.
The bureau has activated the Dropwindsonde Observation for Typhoon Surveillance near the Taiwan Region (DOTSTAR) project, which dispatched an aircraft yesterday afternoon to conduct a six-hour observation flight of the typhoon’s movements.
The DOTSTAR project, which was launched in 2003, has helped reduce the margin of error predicting a typhoon’s movement within 72 hours by about 7.5 percent, the bureau says.
The Maritime and Port Bureau said shipping services to outlying islands, including Green Island (綠島), Lanyu (蘭嶼, also known as Orchid Island), Matsu and Penghu will be cancelled today and tomorrow.
TransAsia Airways said its schedule for international and domestic flights departing before 4pm today would not be affected by the storm’s approach.
The Atomic Energy Council said that nuclear disaster drills scheduled for today and tomorrow have been postponed to a later date.
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