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Taipei City experiences coldest January in 40 years
February 01, 2011
As Taipei experiences its coldest winter in 40 years, mountains across Taiwan have seen much colder temperatures as well. Roads on Hehuan Mountain are covered with snow Jan. 30. (CNA)
Temperatures in Taipei City for the first month of the new year averaged 13.8 degrees Celsius through Jan. 30, marking the coldest January in 40 years, according to the Central Weather Bureau's Weather Forecast Center.
It was also the ninth coldest January in Taiwan's capital since the CWB set up a weather station there more than 110 years ago.
Jia Hsin-hsing, head of the center's Long-Range Forecast Section, said the cold periods during January this year were relatively long.
“The chilly weather was not confined to Taipei City, with 21 of the bureau’s 25 weather stations around Taiwan registering average temperatures ranking in the top 10 coldest since records have been kept,” Jia said.
“The negative Arctic oscillation and La Nina weather phenomenon together have caused frequent polar currents this winter, with cold air masses heading south in waves, bringing chilly temperatures to Taiwan,” Cheng Ming-dean, director of the center, explained.
The year 1971 was the last time Taipei City experienced a colder January, with average temperatures at 13 C, bureau statistics showed.
Taipei City's coldest recorded January occurred in 1963, when the average temperature was 11 C. On Jan. 28 of that year, the temperature for the day was measured at 1 below zero. (SB)