Cold front to bring mercury down to 8 degrees in Taiwan by Thursday

冷氣團抵達，星期四前台灣氣溫降至8度

Temperatures in Taiwan are set to drop to 8 degrees Celsius as cold front arrives on Thursday


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Though Taiwan will see balmy conditions today, cold weather will return to the country midway through the week as a continental cold air mass arrives, bringing the mercury down to as low as 11 degrees Celsius by Wednesday (March 21), according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), while the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) predicts it to drop to 8 degrees by Thursday.

Much like yesterday, temperatures today (March 19) highs today will range between 25 to 30 degrees Celsius, while the lows will dip to 17 to 21 degrees. In the morning, most of Taiwan will see mostly clear skies and dry conditions with only eastern Taiwan and mountainous areas of western Taiwan seeing occasional showers.

However, by the afternoon as moist air arrives, Kinmen and Matsu could see light showers or thunderstorms and scattered showers could be seen in central and northern Taiwan as well.

Tomorrow (March 20), as a weather front passes through and as a continental cold air mass moves south, western Taiwan and northeastern Taiwan could see light showers or thunderstorms and temperatures will start to dip.

As the continental cold air mass arrives in Taiwan, temperatures from Wednesday through Friday in central, northern and northeastern Taiwan will drop to 11 to 13 degrees, while the rest of the country will see lows of 13 to 15 degrees. Though the JMA also predicts a similar low of 12 degrees on Wednesday, it predicts that Thursday will be even colder at 8 degrees, while Friday will only warm up slightly to 10 degrees.

As for precipitation during the cold snap, western Taiwan will be dry with partly cloudy to clear skies from Wednesday through Friday, with the only the windward side of mountainous areas of northern Taiwan and eastern Taiwan possibly seeing rain.

According to the CWB, by Friday the continental cold air mass will start to weaken, and though temperatures will still be cold at night and early morning, daytime temperatures will start to rise, while the JMA does not predict temperatures to rise again until Sunday (March 25).