The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued heavy rain and wind advisories for parts of Taiwan as the storm Kong-rey, newly strengthened to a typhoon, continued to approach the nation from the southeast.
The heavy rain advisory, which the CWA attributed to seasonal northeasterly winds rather than the typhoon, was issued for the Keelung coast and mountainous areas in Taipei, New Taipei City and Yilan County.
Areas under the advisory could receive more than 80mm of rain in a 24-hour period, or more than 40mm in three hours, the CWA said.
Photo courtesy of Central Weather Administration
The CWA also issued a strong wind advisory for Keelung, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Taichung, Changhua County, Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Tainan, Pingtung County, Taitung County, and the outlying Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties.
The advisory means that those areas could experience sustained strong winds of 41kph to 51kph, as well as gale-force gusts of 63kph to 75kph.
Meanwhile, the CWA said the eye of Typhoon Kong-rey was located about 835km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost tip, as of 8am today.
The storm is currently moving northwest at 20kph, packing maximum sustained winds of 126kph and gusts of up to 162kph, the CWA said.
Independent meteorologist Wu Der-rong (吳德榮) said the CWA and most international forecasters now predicted that Kong-rey would make landfall as a typhoon in eastern Taiwan in either Hualien or Taitung County on Thursday.
Taiwan is expected to be hardest hit by the storm on Thursday and Friday.
The weather is set to improve over the weekend, although lingering moisture could bring additional rain to some parts of the country, Wu said.
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