Krathon becomes 1st recorded typhoon to land in Kaohsiung in October

Taipei, Oct. 3 (CNA) Typhoon Krathon is now the first storm on record to make landfall in Kaohsiung in the month of October, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said Thursday, after it reported that the eye of the storm had come ashore in the southern city at 12:40 p.m.

CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) told CNA that due to Taiwan's geographical location, most typhoons tend to make landfall on the eastern side of the island.

It is quite rare for a typhoon to land in Kaohsiung or even anywhere else in southwest Taiwan, he said.

The last recorded storm to make landfall in Kaohsiung was Typhoon Thelma in July 1977, which battered the country and caused serious damage in the southern part of the island.

Typhoons that develop in autumn are particularly fickle and unpredictable, Chang said, explaining why it was so difficult to predict Krathon's movements.

Krathon developed into a tropical storm east of the Philippines on Sept. 28 and was upgraded into a typhoon the next day, hours after Taiwan issued a sea warning for the storm.

On Sept. 30, the CWA issued a land warning for Typhoon Krathon, forecasting that it would track north off Taiwan's east coast after turning north from the Bashi Channel.

However, the storm veered westward and then shifted southward, prompting the CWA to revise its forecast, warning that Krathon would come ashore in southwest Taiwan, Chang told CNA.

The forecast for its path after making landfall has also changed significantly, he said.

It was forecast earlier to move eastward, across Taiwan's central mountain range, then out to sea on the east coast before turning northward, Chang noted.

That forecast was changed on Wednesday, when Krathon was predicted to track northward along western Taiwan after making landfall in the southwest, he said.

In terms of intensity, Typhoon Krathon had been strengthening as it approached Taiwan, moving slowly and becoming even more powerful on Tuesday, with maximum sustained winds of 198 kph and gusts of up to 245 kph, Chang said.

The storm, however, slowed almost to a standstill for a period of time and began weakening as it inched toward southwest Taiwan, he said.

On Thursday afternoon, Krathon was downgraded to a tropical storm, and as of 10 p.m., it was carrying maximum sustained winds of 90 kph, with gusts of up to 119 kph, according to the CWA.

The eye of the storm was located about 40 kilometers east of Kaohsiung, CWA data showed.

As of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, 34 warning reports had been issued for Krathon, which was nowhere close to the record 64 alerts that had been issued in 2001 for Typhoon Nari, the longest lasting storm on record in the Pacific region.