TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A tropical depression that has formed could become a typhoon that may impact Taiwan early next week, after the Mid-Autumn Festival weekend.

Currently, two tropical disturbances are developing in the Pacific Ocean to the south of Japan. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) on Tuesday evening (Sept. 6) upgraded one of the tropical disturbances to a tropical depression and released a forecast map which presently shows the storm headed toward Taiwan.

That evening, the JTWC upgraded Tropical Disturbance 91W to Tropical Depression 14W. JTWC believes that 14W may begin to approach northeast Taiwan early next week.

However, the Facebook page TyTech Taiwan pointed out it will take some time for 14W to integrate with the adjacent Tropical Disturbance 92W and the uncertainty of its future path is extremely high. It stated that although there is a chance that it could become a typhoon, it will not form very soon.

(Facebook, Ty Tech Taiwan image)

According to the JTWC, 14W is located about 1,167 kilometers southeast of Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. It is moving south-southwest at a speed of about 30.5 kilometers per hour.

If 14W becomes a tropical storm, it will be the 12th tropical storm of the year and will be dubbed Muifa (梅花). According to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) forecaster Chen I-hsiu (陳伊秀), there are currently large discrepancies between the forecast models of various international weather bureaus.

Chen said that the impact on Taiwan may not be clear until Sept. 11 or 12. He said that it is likely that 14W will affect moon viewing during the Mid-Autumn Festival on Saturday (Sept. 10). Even if it becomes a typhoon, its future path is uncertain with the many cloud systems in the interior of the storm restraining each other, increasing the difficulty of forecasting.

Map of tropical cyclone's projected path. (JTWC image)