Taiwan lifts sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Gaemi

Taipei, July 26 (CNA) The Central Weather Administration (CWA) lifted sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Gaemi on Friday morning, but added that heavy rain will still persist in many parts of Taiwan.

As of 8 a.m., the eye of the storm was located over China roughly 200 kilometers west of Taiwan's outlying Matsu Islands, and was moving at 9 kilometers per hour, down from 17 kph previously.

The storm has weakened in strength over the past three hours, and poses no further threat to Taiwan's northern waters as well as its outer Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, the CWA said.

Due to the storm's outer clouds combined with southeasterly winds, however, wet weather is expected to persist, the CWA said.

It issued extremely heavy rain or heavy rain advisories for 15 cities and counties, including Miaoli and Pingtung counties, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung cities, and mountainous areas in Nantou County.

The CWA defines extremely heavy rain as accumulated rainfall of more than 200 millimeters in a day or more than 100 millimeters in a 3-hour period. Heavy rain means accumulated rainfall of 80 millimeters or more within 24 hours.

CWA forecaster Liu Yu-chi (劉宇其) said sporadic rain could occur anywhere during the day, with chances of heavy rain in parts of central and southern Taiwan, as well as Hualien and Taitung counties in eastern Taiwan.

From Tuesday to 8 a.m. on Friday, Duonalindao in Kaohsiung's Maolin District had received 1,838.5 millimeters of accumulated rain, the most recorded by any weather station in Taiwan. It was followed by Chiayi's Fenqihu village at 1,528.5 mm.

Meanwhile, a tropical cloud system has developed east of the Philippines, and it is expected to move in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan.

The cloud system is forecast to become a low tropical depression and approach Taiwan's waters on Monday or Tuesday, Liu said.

It is too early to tell if the tropical depression will become a tropical storm, Liu said, but even if it does not, it could still bring rain to the island.