Three to five tropical storms or typhoons are likely to affect Taiwan this summer, and would be formed near the nation due to the La Nina effect, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
Taiwan’s annual typhoon season runs from July to September.
Only two tropical storms have formed in the northwest Pacific Ocean so far this year, fewer than the average of 4.3, Weather Forecast Center Director Lu Kuo-chen (呂國臣) said.
About 21 to 25 tropical storms or typhoons would form from last month to December, three to five of which would affect the nation, bureau data showed.
“We estimate that the number of tropical storms or typhoons forming in the northwest Pacific would be between ‘normal’ to ‘less than normal’ this year, but the number of tropical storms or typhoons directly affecting the nation is likely to fall within the normal range,” Lu said.
The sea temperature in the east Pacific continues to decline, which contributes to La Nina, and warmer waters near Taiwan would facilitate the formation of tropical storms and typhoons, he said.
“In an El Nino year, tropical storms or typhoons tend to form farther from Taiwan. In a La Nina year, they form closer to the nation, which leaves us a shorter time to issue public warnings,” he said.
La Nina would also contribute to a hotter summer, with this month’s rainfall likely to be less than normal or normal, but next month and September would likely fall within the normal range, the bureau said.
This year’s plum rain season saw an average temperature of 28.2°C, higher than the climate average of 26.6°C, and breaking a record set in 1947, it said.
The highest temperatures in May recorded by observation stations in Taichung, on Kinmen and Matsu and at Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) broke historic records, the bureau said.
Taichung’s highest temperature that month was 36.9°C, recorded on May 10.
Ten weather stations recorded their highest June temperatures, such as Taipei, which reached 38.9°C, the highest since the observation station was established 124 years ago.
Aggregate rainfall in the plum rain season was 445.6 millimeters, which was about 80 to 90 percent of the climate average, the bureau said.
However, most of the rainfall occurred in the second half of May, when weather fronts were lingering over southern China, Taiwan and the waters south of Japan, it added.
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