David on Formosa

Typhoon Sinlaku (颱風辛樂克) hit Taiwan over the weekend bringing torrential rains to the north of Taiwan and the Central Mountain Range. Many locations in the mountains recorded more than 1,000 millimetres of rain.The Taipei Times reports:

Shipanlong (石磐龍) in Chiayi County had experienced the biggest accumulation of rain as of press time, topping 1,158mm. It was followed by Taipingshan (太平山) in Ilan County and Niaotsuishan (鳥嘴山) in Hsinchu County, with 1,028mm and 1,011mm respectively. The bureau estimated that rain in Chiayi may have exceeded 1,500mm.

The typhoon’s slow path meant it spent a long time hovering off the coast before making landfall over Yilan County early on Sunday morning. It continued to be slow moving and dump huge amounts of rain. Even today as the typhoon moves northward away from Taiwan there has still been significant amounts of rainfall.

The typhoon caused damage to crops costing at least NT$114 million. Foehn winds affected Taidong County bringing the temperature up to a maximum of 37.8 degrees. However, the typhoon didn’t stop orange line of the Kaohsiung MRT from opening on Sunday as scheduled (Taipei Times).

The photo above shows water pouring over the spillway below the Bitan Bridge on the Xindian River on the morning of 14 September. The level of the Xindian River was quite high, but still not at the heights experienced during Typhoon Krosa which hit Taiwan in October last year.

The graphics from the Central Weather Bureau above show the rainfall in Taiwan over the period 12-14 September.

*More photos in the Typhoon Sinlaku set at flickr.