Cold surge warning imposed for most of Taiwan throughout Sunday

Taipei, Feb. 8 (CNA) The Central Weather Administration (CWA) has issued cold-surge advisories for 21 cities and counties across Taiwan, warning of potential lows dropping below 10 degrees Celsius from Sunday through Monday morning.

An "orange" alert was issued for Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Keelung, and Hsinchu, signaling sustained temperatures around or below 10 degrees Celsius and possibly dropping below 6 degrees in parts of those cities.

The orange alert was also imposed upon Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, and Yilan counties, as well as parts of Taiwan's outlying islands in Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties.

Meanwhile, a "yellow" warning of minimum temperatures falling below 10 degrees was issued for the rest of the country except for offshore Penghu County.

The CWA said the cold weather is due to the effects of a lingering cold front, adding that the mercury in locations north of Taichung averaged below 10 degrees early Sunday, with Taoyuan's Yangmei District and New Taipei's Shimen District seeing the lowest temperature at 8.3 degrees.

Independent meteorologist Wu De-rong (吳德榮) said that between Sunday night and Monday morning, Taipei's weather station could see the mercury within its proximity dip to 10 degrees, further forecasting that temperatures in low-lying areas on Taiwan proper could even drop below 6 degrees.

Wu forecasted that early Tuesday and Wednesday will continue to be very cold around Taiwan, with some low-lying areas once again seeing the likelihood of lows dropping past 6 degrees early Tuesday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, however, the cold front will weaken, bringing comfortable temperature conditions during the day on both days, he said.

Temperatures will start to climb by Thursday, Wu noted, adding that comfortable weather conditions should last from Friday all the way to next Tuesday, though the mercury could fluctuate greatly between day and night.