The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) has warned people in parts of central and southern Taiwan to expect extremely heavy rain or heavy rain on Wednesday due to a cloud system.
The bureau issued an extremely heavy rain or heavy rain warning for Kaohsiung and a heavy rain advisory for Taichung, Changhua County, Nantou County, Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Tainan, Pingtung County, and Taitung County.
The CWB also advised people in those areas to be on the alert for short periods of heavy spurts of rainfall, thunder and lightning, and gusts.
As of 9:30 a.m., Kaohsiung’s Gushan district had recorded the highest accumulated precipitation in the country of 97.5 mm.
Under the CWB’s advisory system, an extremely heavy rain advisory is issued when accumulated rainfall is expected to exceed 100 millimeters in three hours or 200 mm over a 24-hour period, while a heavy rain warning is issued if more than 80 mm of rainfall is expected in a 24-hour period or over 40 mm in one hour.
Unstable weather conditions are expected to affect much of Taiwan Wednesday and Thursday before the first plum rain front arrives Friday and lingers through May 16, Wu Der-rong (???), an adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, said Wednesday.
During the period, the nation should take measures to prevent potential floods and landslides caused by intense rainfall events, Wu added.
Meanwhile, temperatures could drop gradually, with lows of around 16 degrees Celsius forecast for northern Taiwan between the late night of May 16 and the early morning of May 17, according to Wu.
The weather is expected to get better on May 17 as the rain front moves towards the Bashi Channel, Wu added.
On Wednesday, the Water Resources Agency (WRA) said it had ordered local water resources departments and reservoir management offices around Taiwan to brace for possible flooding triggered by sudden downpours by conducting safety checks of flood control facilities and regularly checking pumping stations and reservoir water storage levels.
Currently, reservoirs in central and northern Taiwan are at over 90 percent capacity, according to the WRA.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel