Multiple tropical systems could form in the northwest Pacific Ocean in the next two weeks as a result of a large low-pressure system, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
Spanning from the South China Sea to the Pacific Ocean, the low-pressure system became the dominant meteorological force after a Pacific high-pressure system weakened and receded eastward on Wednesday, the bureau said.
“In the next two weeks, Taiwan would be under the influence of the low-pressure system, which could cause multiple tropical systems to form,” bureau forecaster Hsieh Pei-yun (謝佩芸) said.
Photo: Chen Hsin-yu, Taipei Times
“Regardless of whether these systems affect Taiwan directly, the low-pressure system would increase humidity on the east coast and cause afternoon thundershowers nationwide,” she said.
From today to Sunday, showers are forecast for the east coast, the Hengchun Peninsula and coastal areas in central and southern Taiwan, the bureau said.
Cloudy skies are forecast for the rest of the nation, with a high chance of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in the afternoons in central and southern Taiwan, as well as in mountainous areas, it said, adding that people should beware of possible damage caused by short bursts of intense rainfall, thunderstorms and strong winds.
Former CWB Weather Forecast Center director Daniel Wu (吳德榮), who is an adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, said that European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts simulations showed that tropical systems have emerged in the South China Sea, off the east coast of the Philippines and near Taiwan.
Meteorologists were divided about how a tropical disturbance east of the Ryukyu Islands would develop next week, Wu said.
The US National Weather Service’s Global Forecast System said that it could be upgraded to a tropical storm by Sunday and would move northwest toward the East China Sea, while the European center forecast that it would spin from the southeast of the Ryukyu Islands before moving northeast away from Taiwan.
“How the system would evolve requires further observation,” Wu added.
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