A weather map issued yesterday shows the projected path of Tropical Storm Choi-Wan.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Bureau
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday issued a sea warning for Tropical Storm Choi-Wan, saying that as of 2pm, the center of the storm was about 550km south-southwest of Taiwan proper and that it was moving northeast at about 19kph.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Bureau
Choi-Wan has a radius of 80km, it said, adding that the storm has maximum sustained winds of 65kph that are gusting up to 90kph.
The bureau issued a sea warning at 4pm as Choi-Wan was weakening slower than expected while approaching the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島), the southernmost part of Taiwan proper in Pingtung County.
However, the bureau forecast that Choi-Wan would be downgraded to a tropical depression.
It would be closest to Taiwan proper from this afternoon to tomorrow morning, the bureau said, adding that it would not rule out the possibility of issuing a land warning during this period.
The system would not directly affect a weather front that is forecast to approach Taiwan tomorrow, the bureau said.
Heeding the sea warning, the government said it would set up a Central Emergency Operation Center to be overseen by National Fire Agency Director-General Chen Wen-lung (陳文龍).
Separately, meteorologist Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) on Wednesday said that typhoon activity should return to normal this summer as La Nina’s effect over the Pacific fades.
La Nina, the cyclical cooling event that has been affecting the tropical Pacific since last year, has been keeping precipitation low, Peng wrote on Facebook.
However, the weather phenomenon has disolved, likely bringing neutral conditions to the region, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday, forecasting above-average air temperatures through August.
Despite the cooling effects of La Nina, the organization cautioned against equating it with a “pause in climate change.”
“La Nina has a temporary global cooling effect, which is typically strongest in the second year of the event,” WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said. “This means that 2021 has got off to a relatively cool start — by recent standards. This should not lull us into a false sense of security.”
La Nina and its opposite, El Nino, which brings above-average ocean temperatures, affect Taiwan’s spring rains and typhoon season, Peng said.
Without their influence this year, typhoon development should be relatively normal, he added.
Before predicting a precise number, Peng said that observations would have to wait until the plum rains pass and the Pacific high-pressure system takes over.
“The most conservative thing to say is that 26 to 28 typhoons form on average” every year, he said. “Two to four of them are to hit Taiwan.”
People always want to know in which months typhoons occur so that they can prepare, Peng said, adding that preparing in advance is good, but people can still prepare when a typhoon is forecast.
However, he advised against preparing too early, as it could have a “boy who cried wolf” effect.
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
RSS