Tropical storm Wutip forms, heavy rain expected in parts of Taiwan: CWA

Taipei, June 11 (CNA) The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, Taiwan's Central Weather Administration (CWA) said Wednesday.

The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm Wednesday morning.

The CWA said the storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8 kilometers per hour, with peak gusts reaching 90 kph. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 -- ranging from 50 to 61.5 kph -- extended up to 80 kilometers from the center.

Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping (官欣平) said Wutip will continue moving west-northwest and is expected to turn north near Hainan Island toward Guangdong, China.

While the storm will not directly impact Taiwan, it will push the entire low-pressure belt northward, Kuan said. As a result, Taiwan is expected to be impacted from Wednesday.

Kuan forecast that Hualien and Taitung counties in eastern Taiwan, as well as central and southern Taiwan, will be prone to localized heavy rain. Coastal areas are also expected to see higher waves.

Kuan added that Wutip is expected to remain a tropical storm and will likely make landfall soon after, making further intensification into a moderate typhoon unlikely.

According to Central Weather Administration records, this is the latest in the year that a Pacific storm has formed since 2016.

That year, the western North Pacific saw a total of 26 typhoons -- close to average. However, a strong Pacific high-pressure system and unfavorable atmospheric circulation in the first half of the year kept typhoons from forming before the end of June.

In 2016, the first typhoon was Nepartak, which formed on July 3, while the latest first typhoon on record was Tropical Storm Nichole, which formed on July 9, 1998, the data showed.