Domestic and regional flights around Taiwan were delayed yesterday afternoon as Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) briefly halted ground operations due to thunderstorms and airports in Lienchiang County (Matsu) were temporarily shut down due to fog.
Airport authorities suspended ground operations at Songshan airport for a brief period at 3:13pm over safety concerns due to thunderstorms, but delays were also caused by poor visibility due to poor weather.
Delays lasted as long as 70 minutes for domestic flights operated by Mandarin Airlines and UNI Airways, and up to 48 minutes for regional flights, the airport’s live flight information page showed.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
In addition to domestic flights to eastern Taiwan and outlying islands, Songshan airport also handles regional flights connecting the capital with destinations in Japan, South Korea and China.
As of 4:30pm, the Aeronautical Meteorological Service Web site showed Beigan (北竿) and Nangan (南竿) airports in the Matsu Islands had reopened after closing at 1:18pm and 1:07pm yesterday, but low cloud cover was still affecting operations at the airports.
The unstable weather also led to suspension of services on the Maokong Gondola, the cable car service connecting the Taipei MRT’s Taipei Zoo Station with the hilly Maokong (貓空) tea-producing area.
Meanwhile, the Chongde-Renhe section of Taiwan Railway’s line up and down eastern Taiwan was closed to traffic in both northbound and southbound directions yesterday after landslides caused by heavy rain in Hualien County swept soil over the tracks.
As of last night, southbound reserved-seat trains originating in the Greater Taipei area were operating only as far as Suaosin Station in Yilan County, while local trains were running to Heping Station in Hualien County, the state-run company said.
All northbound trains were terminating at Hualien Station, it said.
Shuttle bus services between Hualien and Heping began at 7:30 pm to help people get to destinations between those two areas, and the number of shuttle buses will be adjusted flexibly based on real-time weather information, it said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) also revised its weather advisories yesterday afternoon.
As of 4pm, it had issued an extremely heavy rainfall warning for New Taipei City other than its northern coastal areas and mountainous areas in Nantou and Hualien counties, meaning accumulated rainfall of 200mm in 24 hours or 100mm in three hours.
The CWA also issued heavy rain warnings for Taipei, Keelung, coastal districts of New Taipei City, Yilan, parts of Nantou and Hualien counties, and mountainous townships around Taiwan, meaning accumulated rainfall of 80mm in 24 hours or 40mm in one hour.
The heavy rainfall could cause falling rocks, debris flows in the mountains, a river water level surge and floods, according to the weather advisories.
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