TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan braced for a prolonged heat wave on Thursday (June 19) as the Central Weather Administration (CWA, 中央氣象署), Taiwan's national meteorological agency, announced high-temperature alerts for nine counties and municipalities across the island, warning that thermometers could climb above 36 degrees Celsius (96.8°F) in the coming days. Respected meteorologist Wu Der-romg (吳德榮), whose weather analyses are widely followed across Taiwanese media, projected that the sweltering conditions would persist for at least ten days, with predominantly sunny and hot weather expected from June 19 through June 28, though residents in mountainous areas might find brief relief from isolated afternoon thunderstorms.
The yellow alert status, which represents the first level in Taiwan's three-tier heat warning system, encompasses a geographic swath covering much of the island's most densely populated regions, including the capital Taipei City and surrounding New Taipei City in the north, the industrial center of Taoyuan City, agricultural heartlands Changhua and Yunlin counties in central Taiwan, and the southern urban centers of Chiayi City, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, and Pingtung County. In his widely read daily weather column, Wu offered little hope for relief from seasonal weather patterns, noting that sophisticated computer simulations from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts showed no indication that the "Plum rain front" (梅雨) — the moisture-laden seasonal weather system that typically brings cooling downpours to Taiwan in late spring — would drift southward to provide respite from the heat during the next ten-day period.
Addressing concerns about potential typhoon activity that might disrupt the extended heat pattern, Wu reassured the public that meteorological conditions appeared unfavorable for significant tropical storm development in the region. The veteran forecaster's analysis indicated minimal probability that currently observed atmospheric disturbances in the Northwest Pacific would intensify into organized tropical depressions, with computer models suggesting less than a 30 percent chance of tropical depression formation either in the South China Sea to Taiwan's southwest or in the waters east of Japan's Ryukyu island chain, a frequent spawning ground for typhoons that later impact Taiwan during summer months. ◼
