Northern Taiwan may experience temperatures lower than 10 degrees Celsius on the weekend in what would be the earliest cold snap in over a decade, said the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) Tuesday.
This would also be the third-earliest cold snap of the last three decades should it come, after the ones on Dec. 6, 1996 and Dec. 9, 2010, the CWB noted in a Facebook post.
The CWB defines a cold snap as a weather event where temperatures recorded by the bureau’s Taipei weather station falls below 10 degrees.
From the 1950s to 1980s, the first cold snap of a year had sometimes come in November or even October, but since 1990, it has usually arrived in Taiwan between December and January, the CWB said.
According to CWB data between 1951 and 2021, Taiwan experienced its earliest cold snap on Oct. 26, 1968 and its latest one on Feb. 21, 1990.
As the cold snap approaches, temperatures around Taiwan are expected to start dropping on Friday, with northern Taiwan likely to see the mercury drop below 10 degrees, said Peng Chi-ming (???), a meteorologist and CEO of WeatherRisk Explore Inc.
However, unlike the northeasterly winds that have brought a lot of moisture to northern and northeastern regions these days, Peng said the cold snap would be drier and may result in some snowfall in mountainous areas.
The imminent cold snap results from negative Arctic Oscillations, meaning that cold air was pushed from high latitudes to middle latitudes as warm air entered the northern polar region, Peng explained in a Facebook post.
Meanwhile, Wu Der-rong (???), an adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, forecast that the temperature could plunge to nine degrees in Taipei and six degrees in low-lying flat areas elsewhere on the island over the weekend.
The weather is expected to become warmer and more comfortable on Dec. 20, Wu added.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel