A tornado churned through Sindian Distict (新店) of New Taipei City (新北市) yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said.
Footage of the rarely seen weather system was captured by several residents and was uploaded to YouTube.
In the footage, a funnel-shaped cloud moving in the distance could be seen against a dark sky at about 1:50pm yesterday.
Photo: CNA
The bureau said that its radar echo map also showed a strong convective system in the area.
Bureau forecaster Wang Chun-sian (王君賢) said the tornado was formed by the interaction between a frontal system that arrived over the country yesterday and heat convection.
Though tornadoes are mostly reported in the plains areas in central and southern regions of the country, Wang said it is also possible for tornadoes to occur in highly populated metropolitan areas.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It [a tornado] can still form [in metropolitan areas] as long as the right conditions are met,” Wang said.
Chen Yi-liang (陳怡良), a section chief at the bureau’s weather forecast center, said the bureau has received reports of similar events occuring in Taitung and in Greater Tainan over the past three years.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
PROPOSAL: The submarines, the first of which would enter into production in 2026, would fire Harpoon missiles and feature better combat systems than the ‘Hai Kun’ The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has proposed a NT$284 billion (US$8.75 billion) plan to build seven attack submarines using an improved design based on the completed Hai Kun (海鯤), or “Narwhal,” prototype submarine, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The plan — which has the support of high-ranking officials — falls under the ministry’s annual budget proposal that is to be submitted to the Executive Yuan, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The new submarines are designed to fire heavy torpedoes and Harpoon missiles, while the Hai Kun is only capable of firing heavy torpedoes, and