Cold surge advisories issued Monday for New Taipei, offshore counties

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) The Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued cold surge warnings on Monday for New Taipei and Taiwan's offshore Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, as a period of persistently low temperatures is expected.

The CWA issued "orange alerts" for Taiwan's outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, signaling sustained temperatures around or below 10 degrees Celsius and possibly dropping below 6 degrees.

Meanwhile, "yellow alerts" warning of lows below 10 degrees were issued for New Taipei.

The CWA forecast daytime highs of 15-17 degrees for other parts of northern and northeastern Taiwan, 18-22 degrees in central Taiwan and 24-27 in the rest of the country on Tuesday.

The CWA added that wet weather is expected to prevail nationwide, with heavy rainfall likely in parts of northern, northeastern and mountainous areas in central Taiwan. Occasional brief showers are likely in other regions.

The rain will begin to ease after Tuesday, although localized showers could occur in the north and the eastern half of the island throughout the rest of the week, independent meteorologist Wu Der-rong (吳德榮) said.

Wu added that stable weather and rising temperatures are expected to return across Taiwan by Wednesday.

Sunny to cloudy skies are also expected on the first two days of the Tomb-Sweeping Festival holiday (Thursday and Friday).