Land warning for Typhoon Krathon expanded up to Miaoli

Taipei, Oct. 2 (CNA) Thirteen cities and counties extending from the south of Taiwan up to Miaoli in the north are now under a land warning for Typhoon Krathon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said Wednesday.

According to the warning, updated as of 1:15 p.m., Typhoon Krathon is currently 130 kilometers southwest of Kaohsiung and is moving north-northeast at 8 kilometers per hour.

The outer rim of the storm has enveloped Taitung in the southeast and areas up to Yunlin in the west, while outer bands of the storm pose a threat of heavy rain and winds to areas northward up to Miaoli in the west and Hualien in the east, the CWA said.

The 13 cities and counties currently included in the warning are: Nantou, Chiayi County, Chiayi City, Pingtung, Changhua, Penghu, Taichung, Tainan, Taitung, Hualien, Miaoli, Yunlin and Kaohsiung.

According to current CWA forecasts, Typhoon Krathon is in the process of weakening. It will make landfall in southwestern Taiwan on Thursday either as a weak typhoon or tropical storm.

It will further weaken as it passes over Taiwan, possibly "dissolving" into a tropical depression, the CWA said, while cautioning that the storm could still bring heavy rains for an extended period of time.

A typhoon is defined as having sustained wind speeds of at least 118 kph, while a tropical storm has wind speeds ranging from 63-117 kph, and a tropical depression has winds of 62 kph or below.

The only other instance in recent history of a storm dissolving as it passed over Taiwan was in July 2001, when Tropical Storm Trami made landfall in Taitung County before weakening into a tropical depression.

In that instance, however, the storm combined with southwesterly monsoon winds, causing heavy downpours in the Kaohsiung area that caused the deaths of four people, knocked out electricity for 136,000 households, and caused NT$70 million (US$2.2 million) in agricultural damage, the CWA said.

For more details on the current weather in Taiwan, please visit the Central Weather Administration website.