A weather system from southern China has over the past three days replenished Taiwan’s reservoirs with almost 16 million tonnes of water, giving Taiwan a slight relief from a water shortage, the Water Resources Agency (WRA) said yesterday.
From 12am on Tuesday to 4pm yesterday, about 15.97 million tonnes fell in the catchment areas of the nation’s reservoirs, which is slightly more than Taiwan’s average daily water use, it said.
However, the rain would ease today, with only isolated showers forecast in Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as in southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
For other regions, cloudy to sunny skies are forecast, with isolated afternoon showers in mountainous areas, the bureau added.
Between noon on Tuesday and 4:20pm yesterday, the bureau’s observation station at National Taiwan University registered the highest accumulated rainfall of 115.5mm, bureau data showed.
Other stations that registered high rainfall were mostly in Hsinchu County, the bureau said.
“The nation had significant spring rainfall in the past two days. We should welcome this development,” CWB Director-General Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典) wrote on Facebook. “However, it did not ease the water shortage problems facing the nation.”
Cloudy to sunny skies are to continue in most parts of the nation from tomorrow to Tuesday next week, with temporary showers forecast on the east coast and in mountainous areas.
The next rain front is forecast to arrive on Wednesday next week, with high chances of isolated showers in the northern and northeastern Taiwan, as well as in mountainous areas in the nation’s central and southern areas, the CWB said.
Today, the bureau is scheduled to announce its forecast for the plum rain season next month and in June.
This year, Taiwan might record the lowest spring rainfall in the past 75 years, with the bureau’s 13 observation stations across the nation reporting an average accumulated rainfall of 125.9mm from Feb. 1 to Tuesday last week, which is 43 percent of the average for that period, bureau data showed.
Average accumulated rainfall in February was 53.9mm, which was about 55 percent of that month’s average, it showed.
In March, the average rainfall dropped to 50.7mm, 53 percent of that month’s average, the data showed.
From April 1 to Tuesday last week, nearly all observation stations on the west coast recorded virtually no rain.
No rain was recorded in Tainan, while Taipei, Hsinchu City and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) recorded less than 1mm of accumulated rainfall, it showed.
Observation stations in Taichung, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung, Nantou and Penghu counties reported “traces of rain,” the bureau said.
The accumulated rainfall in Taipei between Feb. 1 and Tuesday last week was 124.5mm, less than 30 percent of the average for the period, the data showed.
It was the second-lowest spring rainfall recorded since the observation station was established in 1897, the bureau said.
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