David on Formosa

It seems a little unusual that it is August and Taiwan has just experienced its first typhoon or tropical storm of the year. Tropical storm Pabuk hit the island yesterday and today with heavy rains falling on the east coast. I haven't seen reports of how much damage the storm caused but it should have brought some relief to farmers in Taidong who were experiencing a drought. 

I took a few photos yesterday and today to try and capture some of the effects of the storm here in Taipei.  

This photo was taken at Bitan yesterday evening (7 August). The cloud formation is very beautiful. Click on the photo to see a large version at flickr. Anchime, one of my contacts at flickr, took a wonderful photo of what I guess is the same cloud.  

Here is the water pouring over the spillway at the Bitan Bridge this evening. Compare this photo with another one I took following heavy rains in June this year. 

And here is a wide angle view of the Bitan Bridge. Again click on the photo to see the large size at flickr.

There were also some beautiful clouds in the sky this evening. The weather was strange — sunshine broken by intermitten showers of rain.  

Don't put away your umbrellas yet. A second tropical storm, Wutip, is forecast to hit Taiwan in the next few days. The image above comes from the Central Weather Bureau. I recommend this website to keep up to date with the latest typhoon information.