CWA denies delay in provision of typhoon information

Taipei, Oct. 2 (CNA) The Central Weather Administration (CWA) on Wednesday denied media reports it lowered rain and wind forecasts only after a typhoon holiday was declared in municipalities across Taiwan a day earlier.

The weather agency said it provided wind and rain forecasts as they became available promptly to local governments for reference as Typhoon Krathon approached southwest Taiwan.

The CWA was responding to media criticism that its failure to provide timely weather forecasting misled the local governments of Taipei, New Taipei, Keelung and Taoyuan into designating Wednesday a typhoon holiday even though the prevailing weather conditions in those areas did not meet the standard to suspend work and classes.

During typhoons in Taiwan, the decision to suspend work and classes is determined by local governments, as outlined in the regulations governing the suspension of work and classes due to natural disasters.

According to those regulations, work and classes may be suspended in areas where a storm's radius may pass through within four hours with an average wind speed of force 7 (52-62 kilometers per hour) or higher and gusts of force 10 (88-103 kph) or higher on the Beaufort scale, where there is single-day cumulative precipitation of 350 millimeters or more in plains areas, or 200 mm in mountainous areas.

When asked about the matter, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said at a press briefing Wednesday morning that since 2018, the weather agency has held video conferences with the leaders of local governments when there is a possibility of class and office closures during typhoons to provide information on the latest weather conditions and forecasts.

The aggregate rainfall and wind speed forecasts the CWA provided at 7 p.m. Tuesday before the local governments' announcement of a typhoon holiday an hour later were already revised downward after the storm started moving slowly, according to Wu.

In addition, meteorologist Chia Hsin-hsing (賈新興), director of Taiwan Integrated Disaster Prevention of Technology Engineering Consulting Co., said that in addition to weather standards for class and office closures, local government leaders make a more thorough consideration by taking into account such issues as flooding prevention before deciding whether to declare a typhoon holiday.

At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Krathon was located 120 kilometers to the southwest of Kaohsiung and moving northeast at a speed of 9 kph, CWA data showed.

With a radius of 220 km, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 162 kph and gusts of up to 198 kph, the CWA said.

Although Krathon has weakened and is forecast to further weaken once it hits land in southwest Taiwan when it will likely be downgraded to a tropical depression and dissipate Thursday night or Friday, its effects coupled with seasonal northeasterly winds could still bring significant rain to eastern Taiwan and areas south of Taichung, according to Lai Chung-wei (賴忠瑋), general manager of WeatherRisk Explore lnc., a private weather company.

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