A tropical depression east of China’s Hainan Province is poised to strengthen into the second tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday.
The storm, which could be upgraded into a tropical storm before noon today, would be named Maliksi, meaning “brisk” in Filipino.
As of 2pm, the tropical depression was moving northwest at 12kph, CWA data showed.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
The moisture the storm carries is likely to move east and merge with a weather front that is closing in on Taiwan, bringing rain over the weekend, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said.
Tropical Storm Ewiniar is also nearby, although it would not affect Taiwan, the CWA said.
Meanwhile, the nation was struck by two earthquakes off the east coast yesterday morning, which measured above 5 on the Richter scale.
No injuries or damage were reported as of press time.
The larger of the two earthquakes — magnitude 5.3 — occurred at 9:11am, with the epicenter 22.8km northeast of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 17.9km.
Its intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, was level 4 in Hualien County, Nantou County and Taichung, CWA data showed.
At 7:54am, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck 12.7km east of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 17.1km. The intensity in Hualien County reached level 4.
CWA Seismological Center division chief Liao Che-wei (廖哲緯) told a news conference that the two earthquakes were all aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale.
Liao said that the scale and number of aftershocks has slowed significantly since the main quake, but sporadic tremors with a magnitude of 5 or above might still occur.
The CWA issued a presidential alert to residents in Hualien County for the magnitude 5.1 earthquake, and another alert to those in Yilan and Hualien counties for the magnitude 5.3 earthquake, Liao said.
The rupture zone from the Hualien earthquake on April 3 is about 70km long from south to north, Liao said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
A Japanese space rocket carrying a Taiwanese satellite blasted off yesterday, but was later seen spiraling downward in the distance as the company said the launch attempt had failed. It was the second attempt by the Japanese start-up Space One to become the country’s first private firm to put a satellite into orbit, after its first try in March ended in a mid-air explosion. This time, its solid-fuel Kairos rocket had been carrying five satellites, including one from the Taiwan Space Agency and others designed by Japanese students and corporate ventures. Spectators gathered near the company’s coastal Spaceport Kii launch pad in Japan’s
RSS