The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday it might issue a sea alert for Typhoon Songda today, adding that the chance of the typhoon’s radius covering the nation remains low.
According to the bureau, Songda grew from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the radius of the storm expanding from 180km to 200km.
As of press time, the center of the typhoon was 780km off the southeast coast of the Philippines, moving northwest at 14kph. The bureau forecast that Songda may become stronger in the next few days and is estimated to approach Taiwan from tomorrow evening until the end of Saturday.
The bureau also said that the typhoon is forecast to move away from the nation on Sunday. Lin Hsiu-wen (林秀雯), deputy director of the bureau’s weather forecast center, said the typhoon is very likely to move north along the east coast.
The bureau may issue a sea alert either this evening or early tomorrow morning if the radius of the storm enters the nation’s sea alert zone, she said.
Lin said the projected path of Songda showed the typhoon continuing along the edge of the Pacific high-pressure system, adding a land alert was unlikely because the storm’s radius has a very low chance of covering land.
Nonetheless, the bureau said the typhoon’s circumference would still bring showers to the northern and eastern parts of the nation, which are the windward side.
Both central and southern Taiwan, which are on the leeward, are expected to have relatively stable weather, the bureau said.
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