Land warning for Typhoon Ragasa issued; impact to peak Monday, Tuesday

Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) The Central Weather Administration (CWA) has issued a land warning for Typhoon Ragasa, predicting that the storm will continue to intensify and affect Taiwan the most on Monday and Tuesday.

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, half an hour before the land warning for the Hengchun Peninsula was issued, Ragasa's center was located about 630 kilometers east-southeast of Cape Eluanbi, Taiwan's southernmost point, according to the CWA.

It was moving west-northwest at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour and packing maximum sustained winds of 191 kph and gusts of up to 234 kph, CWA data showed.

A land warning indicates that a part of the storm with winds over 50 kph will reach land in 18 hours.

On Sunday morning, a sea warning was issued for Ragasa, covering the southeastern waters of Taiwan (including Orchid and Green Islands), the Bashi Channel and the southern Taiwan Strait.

CWA Senior Specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said earlier Sunday that Ragasa could intensify further, and that its impact would peak Monday and Tuesday, with heavy rain forecast in eastern Taiwan, the northern coast near Keelung, and mountainous areas.

From Monday night through early Tuesday, the typhoon's outer circulation will bring rapid rainfall accumulation in eastern Taiwan and mountainous areas of Kaohsiung and Pingtung, Wu said.

Even as the storm moves away on Wednesday, eastern Taiwan and the Hengchun Peninsula may still see localized heavy rain, according to Wu.

Western Taiwan will continue to experience intense heat, with temperatures expected to exceed 36 degrees Celsius in parts of Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua and Yunlin on Monday, following a peak of 37.4 degrees in Tainan on Sunday afternoon.