Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there.
Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage.
Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed.
Photo: CNA
As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km southwest of Kaohsiung, the agency said.
It was moving northwest at 6kph, with the maximum wind speed near the center reaching 198kph, it said.
The storm’s radius had expanded to 220km, it added.
Krathon began moving north yesterday afternoon, but very slowly, CWA senior weather forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said, adding that it is forecast to move northeast after the center makes landfall.
As the typhoon would be affected by Taiwan’s topography after making landfall, Wu said the CWA has lowered its aggregate rainfall estimates for northern and northeastern Taiwan.
It is unlikely that the typhoon and northeast monsoon would converge to jointly affect the weather in the northern region, she added.
Photo: Walid Berrazeg, AFP
The projected path of the typhoon showed it approaching the southwest coast this afternoon, CWA forecaster Lin Ping-yu (林秉煜) said, adding that it could be downgraded to a tropical depression by Friday after making landfall on Taiwan proper.
However, the speed at which Krathon would move after landing has added some uncertainty to the agency’s subsequent forecasts for the typhoon, Lin said.
“It is a typhoon that formed in the fall, which means that it is subject to influences from various atmospheric factors, such as the Pacific high-pressure system and other systems from the north. We will have to monitor whether it would slow down after reaching land on the southwestern coast, and whether it would lean north or south after making landfall,” he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Today, extremely heavy to torrential rain is forecast in Kaohsiung and Tainan, as well as in Hualien, Taitung and Pingtung counties, during the day, while chances of heavy rain are high in Yilan and Taipei as well, he said.
If the typhoon makes landfall tonight and proceeds to move northeast, rain in the south is expected to continue steadily while rain in the north would increase, he said.
If the typhoon slows after landing, rainfall in the south is expected to increase, while rain in the north could continue to fall steadily until tomorrow.
All domestic flights today have been canceled, as have numerous international flights.
Tigerair Taiwan announced that round-trip flights between Kaohsiung and Macau; Japan’s Nagoya City, Tokyo Narita Airport and Okinawa Naha Airport; Gimpo International Airport in Seoul; and Da Nang City in Vietnam have been canceled.
EVA Airways (長榮航空) flights departing before midday from Kaohsiung for Tokyo Narita Airport, Osaka City and Hong Kong have also been canceled.
Cathay Pacific Airways canceled round-trip flights between Kaohsiung and Hong Kong, and between Taoyuan and Hong Kong today, tomorrow and on Friday.
Starlux Airlines (星宇航空) yesterday announced that round-trip flights between Taichung and Da Nang and Macau tomorrow have been canceled.
Trains operating on the South Link Railway Line have all been canceled, Taiwan Railway Corp said yesterday, adding that it has adjusted some eastbound and southbound train services.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant