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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS