Fraggle

According to ICRT (International Community Radio Taiwan), Fung-Wong has left two dead, six injured and 140,000 without power across Taiwan. One of the dead fell off a shed roof he was trying to repair, perhaps not the safest thing to attempt to do during a typhoon, but sad nonetheless. But under the circumstances it looks like the authorities got their emergency planning much better this time compared to the last typhoon a couple of weeks ago. Incidentally, Fung-Wong apparently translates as "Phoenix"; my friend in Taiwan had a day off work (as is usual during a typhoon) in honour of the Phoenix typhoon...

Apparently Fung-Wong caused some tornados in Taiwan, at least one off the north coast that dredged up lots of fish from the sea which the birds were devouring despite the wind. A friend in Taiwan tells me that in the Taitung area on the east coast "there was a so-called 'fire wind', when the typhoon passed by the central mountains, the air became very dry and the temperature reached 40-45 degrees, and suddenly caused all the trees to catch fire. Fortunately, it was a very baby "fire wind" which only lasted for half hour." We hear of the wind and rain effects of hurricanes, but I thought that was an interesting side-effect that doesn't get reported very often. Reports from when it hit the island suggest that Fung-Wong was packing winds of between 144 and 180-kilometers an hour, which reduced to between 119 and 155 kilometers per hour as it traversed the island. CNN is reporting that some areas of Taiwan experienced up to 36 inches (900 mm). Thankfully I've not heard of any deaths on the island though.

I think the problem is that they had a hit just a week ago, and the more remote areas of the island won't have had time to recover from that yet. Taiwan is regularly hit by typhoons, so they are used to them hitting the island, but even so the damage takes a while to repair. I visited last September, and a number of roads were still closed after a typhoon hit about 3-4 weeks earlier. Some of the communities in the mountainous central spine will definitely be badly affected and probably cut off for a while. It's no wonder that most of the island's population is based on the west and north of the island rather than in the direct firing line of the Pacific storms.

The first typhoon of 2007 to affect the whole of Taiwan, rather than just the northern half of the island. My girlfriend, who lives in the south, was telling me a couple of hours ago that the winds have been very strong down there causing damage to a lot of their plants and farming equipment, although they did not have any problems with losing electricity as happened on the eastern coast and northern parts of the island. But she was just a bit upset that this typhoon arrived on a Saturday, a non-working day, because they always get a day off work if there's a typhoon due to hit! Reports of 2 dead so far, plus a couple more missing from a collapsed house in Taipei, and a lot of mudslides and flooding across the island. It's nice to see Taiwan actually getting a bit of coverage on the BBC from the bad weather; many of the news agencies here in the west seem to focus only on China in these situations with the little island off the eastern coast often hardly getting a mention despite almost always being hit first by the tropical storms...

Thought you might all be interested in this:- From Taiwan's ICRT "International Community Radio Taiwan" website (http://www.icrt.com.tw):- "Subject: Web-Alert ---- Typhoon Sepat up-dates ...... August 18-th 9-AM ... Typhoon Sepat made landfall south of Hualien at roughly 6 o'clock this morning and the eye of the mid-level storm is currently located approximately 70-kilometers south-west of Hualien. Sepat is slowing down however ... and is now moving in a north-westerly direction at speeds averaging 22-kilometers an hour. It is packing wind speeds of 155-kilometers an hour with gusts of just over 190-kilometers an hour being reported -- all of which are being felt across the island .... Schools and government offices are closed throughout Taiwan today .... Public transport is also disrupted islandwide --- with the Taiwan High Speed Rail canceling all trains until 6 o'clock this evening and Taiwan Railways canceling some of its south-bound trains operating on both east and west coast lines. Domestic air travel is at a total shutdown and there are no flights until further notice - while some international flights are also cancelled -- especially those slated to head to Hong Kong. Travelers are advised to check with their airlines before heading to the airport. Emergency centers are operating islandwide .. and have reported small-scale flooding, minor damage to buildings as well as several storm related injuries across the island. However ... authorities in Hualien are saying that water levels in sections Mu-Gua River are rising at an alarming rate. They are monitoring the situation and have said that the river could burst its banks in the coming hour. Needless to say, the County's Storm Watch Center is advising people to avoid the area. Meanwhile ... sporadic power-outages are continuing in parts of Hualien and Taidong Counties - where some 3-thousand households have been without electricity since early this morning. Several thousand residents of townships located in Hualien, Nantou and Pingdong Counties have been evacuated to temporary shelters for the duration of the storm. Eastern parts of the island are still receiving the bulk of the rain - with Fong-bing Township in Hualien County recording the most rain so far this morning --- with upwards of 450-millimeters falling since midnight. The weather bureau says that it expects the eye of the storm to leave Taiwan over the Taichong area in the early afternoon. " This storm is of great interest to me personally as I'm due to fly out next week to visit my girlfriend who lives in Pingdong County, Taiwan. Naturally I'm hoping everything is going to be ok with her and her family...

Yep, I'm enjoying that one myself moving past window over south Manchester. The rain's come in about 10 minutes ago, and the lightning flashes are fairly frequent (2-3 per minute).

That doesn't surprise me, it was the heaviest storm I've seen over Manchester for quite a long time. Part of my job involves looking after student accommodation, and I've just taken two calls about water leaking through ceilings in a couple of properties following the very heavy rain...!

Possibly that's the one that's been over Manchester for quite a while now. It's certainly pretty lively, lots of IC and CG flashes, quite a few every minute. It's more-or-less overhead me at the moment, the lightning is very bright indeed. It came in from the southwest heading in a northeasterly direction, but it seems pretty big. I'm certainly enjoying the light show, just a shame I didn't bring my camera and tripod with me although the rain's now got heavy so would probably have spoiled any shots I could take from my office window...

We've just had a couple of flashes of IC lightning, visible from my perch next door to the BBC in Manchester. Can't hear any thunder because of the sound insulation, but the sky has been very black for the last couple of hours with occasional sharp rain showers.

The rain finally got to central Manchester about 5 minutes ago as the back end of the cloud goes overhead. Still quite a few flashes of lightning off to the east, but can't comment on any thunder as my office is soundproof (necessary as the A57(M) motorway is only about 50 yards away!). The rain has stopped pretty quickly though.

I've just seen the first flash of lightning to the southwest of Manchester. It's gone very dark over Manchester City Centre over the last half hour or so, but mostly to the south of the city.

Last year TS Otto formed in the Atlantic basin on 29 November, lasting only a few days but extending the season into December. Last year's season also started early with a TD in April so last year's season was technically a very long one. Things started later this year, but maybe will continue right up to the end of November.

Latest discussion (taken an hour to come through the email!):- So, maybe a second EWR before the first has fully completed. Is that normal?

Upto about 10 lightning strikes now, the storm is passing almost overhead me in a north-easterly-ish direction. The advantage of living in a giant toblerone-shaped building (a bit swiss chalet-like!) is that I can look up and see above me through the sloping roof. The downside is that all the rain hits the windows so it's very noisy! Another couple of flashes, and the rain is getting heavier.

Second heavy rainfall of the afternoon here in Manchester, but just had the first couple of flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder. I missed the big lightning show on Thursday, so this is a bit of compensation. 3 flashes in the last minute or so.

About 10 minutes of heavy rain, strong winds and quite a bit of thunder and lightning. It must have passed pretty close over me (just south of Manchester city centre). All of a sudden just eased off a couple of minutes ago but still rumbles of thunder every 30 seconds or so.