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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Cold air mass to send temperatures plunging this week
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
A cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Friday which could cause the temperature to drop to 11°C in the north, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
A cold front has led to rainy and cold weather in northern areas this weekend, Bureau weather forecaster Chen Yi-hsiu （陳伊秀） said, adding that the rain is expected to ease today, but the mercury would not return to 20°C until tomorrow.
The nation is expected to see stable weather tomorrow and Wednesday, Chen said, but the chances of rain in the north would gradually rise on Thursday following the arrival of a frontal system.
“The cold air mass that will follow the frontal system lacks humidity and will give rise to dry and cold weather,” she said. “Our data show that the effects of the cold air mass arriving on Friday will be more severe than the one that affected the nation over the weekend. The effect of the cold air mass will last from Friday until Sunday.”
The US National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the Japan Meteorological Agency and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts have all predicted the arrival of a strong cold air mass, with temperatures in the north dropping as low as 10°C, former weather bureau forecast center director Daniel Wu （吳德榮） said.
Whether the cold air mass becomes a “cold wave” remains to be seen, he said.
The nation is experiencing a cold wave when the lowest temperature of the day in Taipei falls below 10°C, according to the bureau.
The cold air zone of the troposphere — the lowest part of the Earth’s atmosphere where weather systems form — was mostly over the northern part of North America earlier this winter, but is now on the move and was passing over eastern Russia on Saturday, Weather bureau forecast center director Cheng Ming-dean （鄭明典） said.
“This situation usually means that the nation has a higher chance of being affected by cold air from the north,” Cheng said. “It means that cold weather will probably occur more frequently now than earlier this winter.”
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
