Tropical Taiwan Sandwich

Two typhoons are hitting Taiwan from opposite ends about a day apart. Tropical Storm Namtheun and Severe Tropical Storm Lionrock are in the process of giving the island of Taiwan a one-two punch.

Typhoons bring torrential rain to Taiwan (Radio Taiwan)

The Central Weather Bureau said Monday that torrential rains have come to Taiwan due to the outer bands of Typhoon Lionrock and a tropical depression system. The bureau told coastal cities to watch out for strong winds and the whole island to be on the alert for mudslides.

Namtheun developed, seemingly out of nowhere, and is proceeding across the northern shore of the island. Namtheun is increasing in intensity and may become a Category 1 typhoon before it crosses the Taiwan Strait. Much of the storm will cross over the capital, Taipei.


Taiwan issues warnings for severe tropical storm(Reuters)

Taiwan officials issued land and sea warnings on Tuesday for a severe tropical storm, the island's first this year, with heavy rain and wind gusts up to 90 kph (60 mph) expected before it heads to China.

Although the storm falls one level short of a full-blown typhoon, Taiwan authorities are especially on guard after the island's worst typhoon in 50 years, also forecast as a relatively weak storm, killed about 700 people in August 2009.

That prompted a cabinet reshuffle as citizens accused the government of reacting too slowly.

The storm dubbed Namtheun, centred 50 km (31 miles) north of Taiwan at 2015 GMT, was expected to reach northern areas of the island by early Wednesday with sustained winds up to 65 kph, the Central Weather Bureau said on its website (www.cwb.gov.tw).

Namtheun will pass over the capital Taipei and the island's major northern port city Keelung, the weather bureau said. It warned of mudslides, rockfalls and sudden swelling of rivers.

The storm could grow to a category 1 typhoon, the mildest on a 1-5 scale, and reach the coast of southeast China, according to forecasting website Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com).

At the other end of the island, Typhoon Lionrock is approaching Taiwan from the southwest. Lionrock is expected to turn towards mainland China before making landfall with Taiwan but heavy rain is still expected.



Tropical Storm Lionrock expected to bring showers to Taiwan: CWB(Focus Taiwan News Channel)

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) Showers of rain were expected to hit Taiwan Sunday as a tropical depression in waters south of the Dongsha (Pratas) Islands in the South China Sea already strengthened into a tropical storm early that day, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.

The storm Lionrock has been moving directly toward southeastern China since its formation at 2 a.m. Sunday and is not expected to cause any direct threat to Taiwan, CWB officials said.