Mountains in central and southern Taiwan battered by rain in wake of typhoon
Typhoon Khanun may have left Taiwan, but Taiwan’s central and southern mountains were still bombarded with rain brought in by southwesterly winds Friday. The Central Weather Bureau issued heavy rain warnings in several areas on Friday, with the central county of Nantou receiving an "extremely torrential rain" warning. By 8:00 p.m., Nantou’s Ren’ai Township had accumulated more than 700 millimeters of rain, while accumulated rainfall in Chiayi and Kaohsiung broke the 300-millimeter mark. The CWB says this latest rain spell won’t let up until Sunday or even Monday when the southwesterlies weaken.
As Typhoon Khanun moves away from Taiwan, Yilan, now on the leeward side has been blasted by downslope winds and Foehn winds. Potted flowers and fruit trees on roadsides are parched from the heat.
Temperatures in this eastern county have risen sharply since Thursday night and at around 2:00 a.m. on Friday, a temperature of 36.1 degrees was measured in Yilan’s Dongshan Township. Foehn winds are heating up the island’s entire eastern half, with Chenggong Township in Taitung also experiencing an extremely high temperature of 37.7 degrees.
Chen Kao-chu
Yilan weather station
Yesterday evening on Aug. 3 and in the early hours of this morning, an even stronger southwesterly air current came in. All the rain fell on the west side of the mountains, so for those of us on the eastern side, that brings down hot air.
While Taiwan’s eastern half baked in the heat, the western half was affected by the tail of Typhoon Khanun and southwesterly winds, which brought heavy rains throughout.
Chu Mei-lin
CWB forecaster
In the south of a low pressure system that’s part of the monsoon, there’s a relatively strong southwesterly wind, and Taiwan is on the north side of the southwesterly winds. Some southwesterly winds are also blowing into the Taiwan Strait. Therefore the region of the Taiwan Strait is mainly an environment with westerly winds. This makes the mountainous areas have more continual and significant rain.
Ren’ai Township in Nantou County had the most accumulated rainfall in Taiwan, and that caused many accidents. For instance, a landslide left the Indigenous Toda Village cut off to the outside world.
Typhoon Khanun’s outer bands also brought storms to mountainous areas in Chiayi. Train services on the main and branch lines of the Alishan Forest Railway were suspended due to landslides.
The Central Weather Bureau forecasts that Taichung, Nantou and mountainous areas south of Chiayi will continue to see rain through Saturday night and until Sunday.
Chu Mei-lin
CWB forecaster
Torrential rains will continue hitting the area. Looking at the situation now, the daily accumulated rainfall may be more than 350 millimeters in the next day or two.
The rain’s not expected to let up significantly until Sunday or Monday at the earliest. Residents in the central and southern regions are advised to remain alert.
2023-08-04
