Western Taiwan saw the least rainfall this winter since 1951, with five weather stations across the nation recording the lowest cumulative rainfall since records began, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday.
The public is urged to conserve water, as rainfall during the spring — which is typically a drier season — is unlikely to alleviate drought conditions, Weather Forecast Center Director Huang Chun-hsi (黃椿喜) said.
The data were collected from December until Sunday, with rainfall mostly concentrated in northern and eastern Taiwan, he said.
Photo: Huang Yi-ching, Taipei Times
Five monitoring stations in Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi County and Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼) off Keelung logged the least rainfall for the season since records began, he said.
In the west, stations in Taipei, Hsinchu County, Taichung, Chiayi County, Tainan and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) recorded the least seasonal rainfall since 1951, he said.
Taiwan proper saw 158.4mm of rain this winter, the fifth-lowest volume since 1951, and only about 60 percent of the average of 260.6mm, he said.
The season saw just 24.2 days of rain, lower than the average of 32.6 and marking the fourth-fewest since 1951, he added.
Temperatures alternated between cold and warm periods, except in the first half of last month, when two strong continental cold air masses and one cold surge affected Taiwan for an extended period, he said.
However, northern weather systems were relatively weak at times, resulting in overall warmer conditions than usual, Huang added.
As La Nina continues to weaken, conditions during spring are expected to gradually return to normal, he said.
Temperatures from next month to May are forecast to be normal or above normal, while rainfall is expected to be below normal to near normal, Huang said.
Cold air masses could still move south and affect Taiwan next month, with dense fog likely over the next two months in western Taiwan, as well as outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, he added.
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