Taiwan logs wettest plum rain season since 2012

Taipei, June 30 (CNA) Taiwan recorded its wettest plum rain season since 2012, with rainfall at the Taipei weather station setting a record for June, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said Tuesday.

At a news conference on the upcoming typhoon season, CWA Weather Forecast Center Director Huang Treng-shi (黃椿喜) said this year's plum rain season, which runs from May to June, was marked by below-average rainfall in May but significantly heavier rain in June.

He attributed the June rainfall to stationary fronts, southwesterly airflows and the outer circulation of a tropical storm, which brought widespread rain to western Taiwan.

Rain fell for more than 10 days during the first half of June, with southern Taiwan receiving 400-800 millimeters of accumulated rainfall, Huang said. In late June, hourly rainfall reached 80-130 mm in western Taiwan, while parts of Pingtung County in the south recorded nearly 1,000 mm over three days.

The CWA said nationwide rainfall during the 2026 plum rain season averaged 609.9 mm, well above the historical average of 440.7 mm and the highest since 2012, when there was 902 mm of rainfall.

Meanwhile, the Taipei weather station recorded 870.5 mm of rainfall in June, making it the wettest June since records began in 1897, surpassing the previous records of 757.7 mm in 1991 and 711.6 mm in 1947.

Looking ahead, the CWA said it forecasts normal to above-normal temperatures and near-normal rainfall in Taiwan from July through September.

It said three to five tropical storms or typhoons are expected to pass near Taiwan during the second half of the year, within the historical average. In contrast, the total number of tropical storms forming over the northwestern Pacific is forecast to be normal to slightly below normal.

The CWA said eight tropical storms had formed in the northwestern Pacific between January and June, well above the historical average of 4.3 for the period. It also marked only the third time on record that a tropical storm had formed in every month from January through June, following 1965 and 2015.

Huang said warming sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific indicate that El Niño is developing and is likely to persist into next spring.

During El Niño years, tropical storms tend to form farther east over the Pacific, allowing more time to intensify over warm ocean waters and increasing the likelihood of stronger storms, he said.

The CWA expects typhoon activity to be relatively strong in July before becoming less so in August and September.

Beginning Wednesday, the first day of Taiwan's typhoon season, the CWA will also introduce new coastal wave warnings. Cell broadcast alerts will be issued when waves of 6 meters or higher are forecast along coastal areas.