By Huang Yi-ching / Staff reporter
A sea warning for Typhoon Champi might be issued tonight, while the storm’s trajectory would determine whether a land warning is to be issued tomorrow night, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday.
As of 2pm yesterday, Champi was about 1,536km east-southeast of Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), packing maximum sustained winds of 198kph, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said.
The storm was moving west-northwest at 23kph and was expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours before weakening slightly as it approaches cooler waters east of Taiwan, Tseng said.
A graphic shows the projected path of Typhoon Champi as of 2pm yesterday.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Administration
Champi is expected to turn north tomorrow, with the angle of the turn determining its proximity to Taiwan, he said.
The turn might send the storm’s periphery close to land, potentially prompting a land warning for northern Taiwan, as well as Yilan and Hualien counties tomorrow night, he said.
While some international tracking models predict the typhoon would move close to Taiwan, the probability of it veering to the northeast has increased compared with earlier forecasts, Tseng said, adding that the CWA bases its warnings on the models with the smallest margin of error in recent predictions.
Regardless of its exact path, Champi is expected to be closest to Taiwan from Friday to Saturday morning, Tseng said.
From today, a strengthening northeast monsoon is to bring rain to northern and eastern regions, with heavy downpours likely in Yilan and mountainous areas of greater Taipei, he said.
Precipitation is to intensify tomorrow as the typhoon approaches, peaking on Friday, when rain is expected nationwide, Tseng said, adding that northern and eastern areas could have heavy or extremely heavy rainfall.
Rain is to ease by Saturday afternoon as the storm departs, he added.
Strong winds and large waves are expected, with waves off the east coast, Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) potentially reaching 6m tomorrow, Tseng said.
Asked if interaction between the typhoon and the northeast monsoon would trigger massive rainfall, Tseng said that the effect is expected to occur over the ocean northeast of Taiwan, rather than directly over the nation.