A plum rain front is to linger over Taiwan proper through tomorrow, bringing highly unstable weather and chances of strong rainfall across the nation, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
In particular, residents of western and northeastern Taiwan as well as mountainous areas in southern Taiwan should take precautions, forecasters said.
Daniel Wu (吳德榮), a former CWB Weather Forecast Center director who is an adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, said that while the front might ease the nation’s prolonged water shortage, it might also cause flooding and mudslides.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, Water Resources Agency (WRA) Deputy Director-General Wang Yi-feng (王藝峰) said that heavy rains throughout Taiwan on Friday lead to rising water levels at some reservoirs, but did not replenish the reserves in central and southern Taiwan.
The rainfall was concentrated in Keelung, Taipei and New Taipei City, with Yilan County, Taoyuan and Taichung receiving less rain, Wang said.
New Taipei City’s Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫) benefited the most from the downpours, with its level increasing from 69 percent to 75.02 percent of capacity from midnight on Thursday to 9pm on Friday, WRA data showed.
The water volume at Taoyuan’s Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) increased to about 2.28 million cubic meters, or 19.21 percent of capacity, up from 17.26 percent before the rains, it showed.
The level at Keelung’s Sinshan Reservoir (新山水庫) rose to 87.47 percent of capacity, the data showed.
Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake Reservoir (日月潭) and Wushe Reservoir (霧社水庫) were the only ones outside northern Taiwan where the levels rose, while most other reservoirs in the south did not receive additional water, the data showed.
Due to the months without substantial rainfall, mostly affecting western regions from Taoyuan to Pingtung County, water reserves in many major reservoirs have fallen to below 10 percent of capacity, prompting local government’s to restrict supply to households and industrial users
To date, water supply to households in Taichung, Miaoli County and parts of Changhua County is restricted to five days per week.
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