TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's average temperature rose significantly higher than the global average over the past 30 years, reported the Central Weather Administration (CWA).
In a post uploaded to its Climate Taiwan Facebook page on Tuesday (Nov. 21), the CWA said from 1991-2020, Taiwan's temperature rose by 0.29 Celsius every 10 years, surpassing the global average of 0.21 C. According to the CWA, this discrepancy is mainly due to the greater impact of climate change in East Asia and the weakening of the northeasterly winds, resulting in warmer winters.
The CWA said that climate change has already caused serious problems across the world. Taiwan has also been affected by rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns, in turn affecting the economy, industry and the safety and wellbeing of the people.
Observing the climate conditions in Taiwan, according to data from the CWA's 13 flatland weather observation stations, the temperature increase trend from 1898 to 2020 showed an increase of 0.11 C every 10 years. However, from 1991 to 2020, the rate of temperature rise has accelerated to 0.29 C every 10 years.
Compared to the global average increase of 0.21 C every 10 years, Taiwan's rate of warming is significantly faster.
Head of the CWA climate forecasting division, Lo Tzu-ting (羅資婷), was cited by CNA as saying the degree of warming in the northern hemisphere is higher than that of the southern hemisphere, and land areas are warming more than the oceans. Within this context, East Asia is a region where the warming phenomenon is particularly pronounced. This is why Taiwan's temperatures are experiencing a much more obvious increase in temperature than the global average, said Lo.
Lo explained that El Nino occurs approximately every five to seven years and judging from past records, the frequency has not changed significantly and for that reason, the long-term statistical impact is relatively small.
According to the data, in terms of rainfall, although Taiwan's annual total rainfall does not show a significant trend, the intensity of extreme rainfall has increased. Taiwan has seen a decrease in spring rains, and a reduction in the number of days with small amounts of rainfall.
The CWA predicts that climate change will gradually lead to trends in Taiwan's rainfall patterns, such as drier dry seasons and wetter wet seasons, fewer consecutive rainy days, and more consecutive non-raining days, and increased extreme rainfall in the plum rain season.