Typhoon likely to make direct hit on Taiwan this weekend

Tropical Storm Haikui has been upgraded to a category 1 typhoon, and Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau has revised the predicted path to cross over the northern part of the island Sunday, September 3.

Typhoon Haikui was predicted by most forecast models to pass north of Taiwan, but the CWB now predicts a direct hit on the northeast coastal area of Yilan County, while Weather Underground predicts a path over the central part of the island, making landfall in Hualien County.

According to the CWB, at 8:00 am this morning Typhoon Hiakui was 960 kilometers east-southeast of Taipei moving west at 21 kilometers per hour. The storm’s diameter was expanding, and it is expected to intensify during the day. The storm is packing winds of 33 meters per second near the center with gusts of 43 meters per second.

The CWB said that a maritime typhoon warning will be issued today afternoon or evening, and a land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow.

Taiwan historically has an average of three typhoons per year make landfall. However, no typhoon has made landfall in the last four years. It is currently a record 1,469 days since Tropical Storm Bailu crossed the southern tip of Taiwan, August 24, 2019.

If Typhoon Haikui follows the predicted path, Yilan County will experience the greatest impact, and Keelung, Greater Taipei, Taoyuan, and mountain areas of Hsinchu and Miaoli counties will also be affected by heavy rain and strong winds.

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