Former Central Weather Bureau (CWB) forecast center director Daniel Wu (吳德榮) yesterday criticized CWB acting director-general Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典), saying that Cheng inaccurately predicted that the nation would see an early end to the plum rain season and that Cheng’s comments compromised the bureau’s credibility.
With a weather front moving north, the nation has had high temperatures and afternoon showers in the past few weeks due to the dominant influence of a Pacific high-pressure system, a sign of an early termination of the plum rain season, Cheng said on Facebook on Sunday, adding that the rain could return later this month.
In his online column yesterday, Wu said that Cheng’s prediction of a second plum rain season contradicted his assertion of an early end to the season.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
The center on May 31 published a long-term weather forecast, which showed that rainfall this month is highly likely to be within the normal range, Wu said, adding that the report did not say that there would be an early end to the plum rain season.
“The report offers a rather accurate long-term weather forecast, but I am afraid its credibility has been greatly weakened by the acting director-general’s remarks on Facebook,” Wu said.
Despite the technology available, there was no way for meteorologists to tell at the end of last month or the beginning of this month whether there would still be plum rain fronts affecting the nation in the second half of this month, he said.
Cheng spoke too soon and contradicted information published by the bureau, Wu said, adding that historical weather data show that it is quite normal to have one or two relatively dry weeks amid the plum rain season.
The fourth front of the plum rain season, a stationary front, is expected to move close to Taiwan on Sunday along with a southeasterly airstream, based on simulations conducted by meteorologists in the EU and the US, Wu said.
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