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.
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS