Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the weather agency said Friday, the latest in a string of global temperature records.
The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, Central Weather Administration forecaster Liu Pei-teng told AFP.
Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns.
Photo: Taipei Time
Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381C as of October 30, Liu said.
Liu said the average could slip 0.1C by the end of Friday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009C in 2016.
"The temperature only started lowering around October 18 or 19 while in previous years it started cooling in mid-September or early October, which make the average temperature of this month a record high compared with the same period in previous years," Liu said.
Liu pointed to "relatively high" sea temperatures around Taiwan, Japan and the Western Pacific, and the delayed arrival of seasonal northeasterly winds for the heat.
President Lai Ching-te said Taiwan had been hit by damaging "wind and floods" in recent months as well as enduring "unusually hot" weather.
"High temperatures that continued into October were a very clear warning, and this kind of weather disaster will only become more frequent and severe in the future," Lai told the National Climate Change Committee on Thursday.
"From the torrential rains in Asia and heat waves in Europe to the forest fires in the Americas, extreme weather has become the ’new normal’ around the globe, and it continues to impact the society and economy of every nation," he said, according to an official transcript.
A barrier lake in eastern Taiwan burst during torrential rains brought by Super Typhoon Ragasa in September, killing 19 people.
Typhoon Danas, which hit Taiwan in early July, killed two people and injured hundreds as the storm dumped more than 500 mm of rain across the south over a weekend.
Global temperatures have been pushed steadily higher by humanity’s emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily from fossil fuels burned on a massive scale since the industrial revolution.
Scientists expect that 2025 will be the third-hottest year after 2024 and 2023, with recent months tracking just behind the records set during this extraordinary stretch.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
RSS