Parts of southern Taiwan forecast to receive heavy rain on Thursday

Taipei, June 24 (CNA) The Central Weather Administration (CWA) has forecast localized heavy rain in southern Taiwan beginning early Thursday morning, with sporadic showers or thunderstorms in other areas of the country that day.

As a frontal system from the north approaches and southwesterly winds strengthen, showers or thunderstorms are expected to begin in southern Taiwan late Wednesday, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) told CNA.

Heavy rain or even torrential rain is likely in parts of that region on Thursday, while other areas of Taiwan will see scattered showers or thunderstorms, with a chance of localized heavy rain in mountainous areas in the afternoon, Huang added.

On Friday and Saturday, Huang said, a frontal system will affect Taiwan, bringing localized brief showers or thunderstorms to the west of the island and the southeastern region, with localized heavy rain possible in mountainous areas across the island.

The weather forecaster added that rainfall will be most intense on Friday, when western Taiwan will be prone to localized short-duration torrential rain.

In terms of temperature, Huang said daytime highs across Taiwan will drop to around 28-30 degrees Celsius from Thursday to Saturday due to cloud cover and rainfall.

Starting Sunday, weather conditions will gradually stabilize, and temperatures will rise, with highs of 32-34 degrees across Taiwan, he said.

As for Typhoon Mekkhala, Huang noted that the storm was located over the sea 490 kilometers southeast of Taipei at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

It is expected to move northward along the eastern side of Taiwan throughout Thursday, before gradually turning toward waters south of Japan that evening and moving away from Taiwan, Huang said.

Mekkhala will continue to weaken as it moves north, and is likely to become a tropical storm as early as Wednesday night, he added.

Huang further said that Tropical Storm Higos, which was located 2,190 km east-southeast of Eluanbi at 2 p.m., had shown no significant development in recent days.

He forecast that the system will weaken into a tropical system as it moves north over the coming days, with little likelihood it will interact with Typhoon Mekkhala.