Taiwan's highest mountain sees brief snow amid cold air mass

Taipei, March 11 (CNA) Snow fell briefly on Yushan, the highest mountain in Taiwan, early Wednesday morning, as a continental cold air mass kept temperatures down across the country.

The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said the snow fell on 3,952-meter Yushan (Jade Mountain) between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. when its weather monitoring station there recorded a temperature of minus 8.9 degrees Celsius.

As drier air moved in, however, the snowfall stopped, the CWA said.

The CWA said chilly weather conditions are expected to continue in northern, northeastern, and eastern Taiwan on Wednesday, and it issued several cold surge warnings for those areas.

An "orange" alert was issued for parts of New Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, indicating temperatures in low-lying areas will dip briefly below 6 degrees or will fall below 10 degrees and remain below 12 degrees for 24 hours.

A "yellow" warning was issued for parts of Miaoli and Changhua counties and outlying Kinmen County, the CWA said, meaning that they could see temperatures in low-lying areas dip below 10 degrees.

Independent meteorologist Wu Der-rong (吳德榮) said that while the cold air mass would weaken to some extent on Wednesday morning, radiative cooling was expected to keep temperatures low at night, with lows falling below 10 degrees.

While partly cloudy to sunny skies are expected for most of Taiwan on Wednesday, brief showers are likely in the east, Wu said.

According to the CWA, Tropical Storm Nuri formed over waters east of the Philippines at around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Since the storm is currently located about 2,150 kilometers away from Cape Eluanbi, Taiwan's southernmost point, and moving in an easterly direction, it was unlikely to affect Taiwan, the CWA said.