Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday.
As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said.
It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said.
Photo: screen grab from the Central Weather Administration’s Web site
The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon.
As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at 24kph.
Usagi could bring scattered or isolated rain showers to much of Taiwan, particularly in the eastern counties of Hualien and Taitung and on the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) in the south, when it is closest to Taiwan from tomorrow to the early hours of Sunday, it said.
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency urged people not to visit mountainous areas when the typhoon comes close to the nation.
National forest recreation areas and forest railway services in eastern and southern Taiwan might be closed for precaution from today, it said.
People who are planning to visit such areas or take the trains are advised to check the weather forecast and the agency’s Web site before traveling, it said.
In addition to Usagi, there are two other tropical storms in the Western Pacific — Toraji and Man-yi — although neither is expected to directly affect Taiwan, the CWA said.
A typhoon is defined by wind speeds of 118kph or above, while tropical storms have wind speeds of 62kph to 117kph.
Rotating storms with winds weaker than 62kph are referred to as tropical depressions.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS