Central Weather Bureau’s (CWB) Weather Forecast Center director Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典) on Friday sparked controversy by making a statement about the future development of Typhoon Megi that seemingly differed from the bureau’s official forecast.
In his post on Friday on the social networking Web site Facebook, Cheng said he would explain to the public what was meant by the “potential route” of a typhoon.
At the end of the post, he added that “there is a 50 percent chance that the CWB will issue a typhoon alert for Typhoon Megi.”
The statement by Cheng was seen as at odds with the official forecast by the CWB, which said it would not likely issue a typhoon alert for Megi.
In response to the queries, Cheng said he was not making a separate forecast on his Facebook.
“I posted the message because a lot of people said they don’t understand the potential typhoon route map, so I was trying to explain it, and remind the public to remain cautious,” he said. “I was not making a forecast at all.”
Commenting on the issue, CWB forecaster Chen Wei-liang (陳維良) said that, based on current information, the CWB would not issue a typhoon alert for Megi. However, he added there is always a great deal of uncertainty in weather forecasting and “all forecasters have their own estimates in mind.”
Cheng’s Facebook page is popular with Internet users because he predicted on his page last year that Typhoon Morakot could bring severe disaster to the country.
However, Cheng temporarily shut down his Facebook page because he unofficially released a typhoon alert on his Facebook page 18 minutes ahead of the official CWB typhoon alert last month.
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