Residents of northern Taiwan should brace for heavy rain today and tomorrow as Typhoon In-Fa approaches the northeast, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
A land alert for the typhoon would be issued depending on the angle at which it moves north today, the bureau said.
The bureau on Wednesday issued a sea alert for the typhoon, which applies to ships operating off the nation’s northern, northeastern and southeastern coasts.
As of 8:30pm yesterday, In-Fa’s center was 470km southeast of Taipei, moving northwest at 6kph. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 180kph, and had a radius of 200km.
The typhoon was moving rather slowly due to the lack of a clear guiding airstream, bureau forecaster Hsieh Pei-yun (謝佩芸) said, adding that the CWB forecast that it would be near the southern coast of Japan’s Miyako Island this morning.
While humidity at sea allows the typhoon to develop, In-Fa would maintain its current level of intensity when it approaches Taiwan and slowly turns north today as a Pacific high-pressure system subsides, Hsieh said.
Photo: CNA
“The angle at which it turns as it moves north would be key in determining how the storm would affect the nation,” she said, when asked about the possibility of the bureau issuing a land alert.
“If the typhoon veers to the east after it turns north, the radius of the storm would not reach Taiwan,” Hsieh said.
The typhoon is to accelerate and move away from Taiwan tomorrow, she said.
Intermittent rain began to fall in the northern and northeastern regions yesterday, Hsieh said, adding that extremely heavy rain is forecast for mountainous areas in northern Taiwan today.
Showers are forecast for central, southern and eastern Taiwan.
The bureau issued an extremely heavy rain alert to residents of Taoyuan and Hsinchu County, as well as mountainous areas in Taipei, New Taipei City, Miaoli and Yilan counties.
By 5pm yesterday, Hsinchu County’s Beipu Township (北埔) had the nation’s highest accumulated rainfall of 298.5mm, followed by 222mm at Taoyuan’s Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫), 220mm in Miaoli County’s Nanjhuang Township (南庄) and 210mm in Yilan County’s Taipingshan (太平山), bureau data showed.
On Sunday, a southwest wind would rise again after the typhoon arrives in China, making the weather in central and southern Taiwan unstable, Hsieh said.
Five domestic flights and two international flights were canceled yesterday due to In-Fa, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding