Taipei: The Central Weather Administration (CWA) on Saturday issued heavy rain advisories for Taipei and New Taipei, and announced an extremely heavy rain advisory for Yilan County. Under the yellow color-coded heavy rain advisory, the CWA warned Taipei and New Taipei of the possibility of more than 80 millimeters of rainfall within 24 hours, or more than 40 mm within one hour.
According to Focus Taiwan, Yilan has been placed under a higher-tier orange warning, indicating that the accumulated rainfall could exceed 200 millimeters within 24 hours or 100 mm within three hours. The administration explained that the heavy rainfall forecasted for the northern Taiwan locations is due to the effects of a lingering northeasterly wind, which could bring short bursts of heavy precipitation.
Mountainous areas in Yilan should be aware of localized heavy rain and even extremely heavy rain, while New Taipei's coastal and mountainous areas, as well as Taipei, could also see localized heavy rain, the CWA added. Independent weather expert Wu Der-rong further mentioned that a tropical disturbance forming above the South China Sea between Saturday and Sunday could alter Taiwan's surrounding wind patterns to turn east over the weekend, consequently increasing the atmospheric moisture of eastern Taiwan.
While the tropical disturbance has been forecast with a southbound trajectory and is showing no signs of further development, Wu indicated that another tropical disturbance will develop east of Guam after Wednesday. He stated that this phenomenon will most likely turn into a typhoon-level storm due to a very strong El Ni±o event, but whether or not it will threaten Taiwan is still too early to tell.
Wu also echoed the CWA's weather forecast for Saturday, saying that the Greater Taipei area could see short and localized heavy rain, adding that the eastern half of the island could see precipitation as well. Wu noted that the western half of the island will experience cloudy weather, but mountainous locations could see localized rain on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, Wu predicted that areas east of Greater Taipei and the eastern half of Taiwan could see short and localized showers, while western Taiwan will most likely see the same weather patterns forecasted for Saturday.