A sea alert for Typhoon In-Fa could be issued this morning as it moves toward Taiwan, although it remains uncertain if its center would make landfall, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Cempaka was upgraded to a typhoon yesterday morning as it moved north toward China’s Guangdong Province, the bureau said.
As of 2pm yesterday, In-Fa was classified as a tropical storm and was centered 800km east of Taipei, moving west at 13kph with maximum sustained winds of 101kph.
Photo: Lu Hsien-hsiu, Taipei Times
It was upgraded to a moderate typhoon at 8pm yesterday evening.
In other news, the bureau yesterday announced that it had completed the installation and renovation of 576 automatic weather observation stations nationwide.
The 14-year project had cost NT$290 million (US$10.33 million), the bureau said.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Bureau via CNA
The automatic system, including 437 weather observation stations and 139 rain observation stations, would enable the agency to collect meteorological data that could be used to prevent damage and casualties caused by flooding, mudflows and landslides, it said.
The bureau has since 1985 budgeted funding annually to build the 24-hour automatic weather observation system, it said.
By 2005, 257 rain observation stations and 119 weather observation stations had been installed.
Between 2006 and last year, the bureau gradually retired old stations and installed new ones, it said.
With advances in weather forecast technology, the bureau also upgraded some of the rain observation stations so that they are able to monitor changes in temperature, humidity, air pressure and wind speed.
That helped raise the density of observation stations nationwide, it added.
The system not only enhances the efficiency of the weather forecast service, it also enables the agency to more accurately forecast occurrences of topography-induced weather, such as high temperatures in the East Rift Valley between Hualien and Taitung, strong precipitation in the mountainous areas of New Taipei City, and Yilan and Pingtung counties, as well as katabatic wind in the Hengchun Peninsula.
Weather data collected by the system would allow the agency to issue timely alerts for typhoons and other extreme weather events, and it can also be used in scientific research, the bureau said.
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung (唐嘉鴻) on Sunday won gold in the men’s horizontal bar final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Tang scored 14.966 in the final. He had advanced to the final in second place with a score of 14.566 points in qualifying, with a difficulty score of 6.000 and an execution score of 8.566. In the final, he raised his difficulty score to 6.600, the highest among the eight finalists. Although he did not fully steady himself on landing, his score was still enough to claim the gold medal. Taiwan had previously won two silver medals and
EYE ON 2027: The US military has placed equipment, materiel and personnel on the islands near China, a US officer said while warning about the threat from China The US Army Pacific (USARPAC) is deploying forces and equipment across the region based on the assumption that Beijing could possess the military capability and the intent to invade Taiwan by next year, a top US commander said on Tuesday. Speaking at the TechNet Indo-Pacific conference in Honolulu, US General Ronald Clark said that the threat posed by the so-called “Davidson window” is “still valid,” US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported on Wednesday. The term stems from a 2021 warning by Admiral Philip Davidson, then-head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, that the threat of Chinese military action against Taiwan could materialize
CALL FOR NEW MEASURES: Transnational repression should not just be treated as violation of individual rights, but as offenses against national interests, an official said Any Hong Kongers who collaborate with China to carry out transnational repression in Taiwan would have their Taiwanese citizenship or residency revoked, an official familiar with the matter said yesterday. The comment came after the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Oct. 7 issued arrest warrants for two Hong Kongers, who allegedly in 2024 hired a Taiwanese private investigation agency to surveil Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋). Two Taiwanese private investigators, Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永津) and Hsieh Yi-chen (謝乙辰), were indicted on charges of illegally collecting and using personal data under the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), alongside two
BUILDING LINKS: Taipei and Europe should cooperate ‘so that no single supplier and no single government can hold our shared future hostage,’ an official said Beijing has no say in Taiwan’s partnerships with European countries, Formosa Club acting chair Rihards Kols, a member of the European Parliament (MEP), told a forum in Taipei yesterday. The Formosa Club, an interparliamentary group of European lawmakers, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cohosted the Trusted Technology Forum for Democracies, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) and drone technologies. In his opening speech, Kols said it is crucial that people meet and understand each other’s concerns, and work out how they can help. The club has brought European parliamentarians to the second annual forum to understand Taiwan better and seek
RSS