Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records.
The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said.
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 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said.
Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016.
"The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 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 William Lai (賴清德) 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 500mm 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 this year will be the third-hottest year after last year and 2023, with recent months tracking just behind the records set during this extraordinary stretch.
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