Tropical Storm Saola has been upgraded to a typhoon and would head toward Taiwan next week, most likely prompting at least a sea warning, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
As of 2am yesterday, Typhoon Saola was 410km southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) in southern Taiwan, moving south at 15kph, with sustained winds of 137kph and gusts of up to 173kph, the bureau said.
The typhoon is forecast to remain almost stationary east of the Philippines over the weekend, but is expected to move north tomorrow and start heading toward Taiwan, the bureau said.
Photo courtesy of Huang Sheng-huang via CNA
A sea warning would most likely be issued for Taiwan next week, and a land warning is also possible, it said.
Daniel Wu (吳德榮), a former bureau Weather Forecast Center director who is an adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, said that the projections are still uncertain, and a more accurate forecast of the storm’s effects would be possible when it starts moving north tomorrow.
Forecasting models from around the world are showing different paths for the storm, Wu added.
Photo: Screen grab from Central Weather Bureau’s Web site
Parts of north, east and south Taiwan could expect showers on Wednesday and Thursday, brought by the outer bands of the typhoon, the bureau said.
Tropical Storm Damrey, meanhile, was northeast of Guam, and another tropical disturbance is likely to develop near the US territory in the next two to three days, the bureau said.
While neither of those two systems are likely to directly affect Taiwan, they could influence the path of Typhoon Saola, making it more erratic, it said.
The Maritime and Port Bureau said that ferry services between Taitung and Pingtung counties, and Taiwan’s outlying islands would be subject to change or canceled for four days from tomorrow due to Typhoon Saola.
Ferry services between Fugang (富岡) in Taitung and Green Island (綠島) would be canceled from 10:30am tomorrow, the East Maritime Affairs Center said, citing information received from boat operators.
Long Hung Shipping Co would run an extra service from Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) to Fugang at 9:30am tomorrow, but cancel its return journey in the afternoon, the center said.
The boat from Orchid Island to Houbihu (後壁湖) in Pingtung County that was originally scheduled to depart at 2:45pm tomorrow would leave at 9:30am, while an additional boat would depart at 7am from Houbihu to Orchid Island, it said.
Dafa Shipping Co announced that it would cancel tomorrow’s 12:45pm ferry service from Fugang to Orchid Island, the center said.
From Tuesday to Thursday, all ferry services between Fugang and Green Island, Fugang and Orchid Island, and Houbihu and Orchid Island would be suspended, it said.
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