“This is meteorologist Christel Hatcher reporting from Dashe, Taiwan.”

Ha ha, just kidding. But I am a bit of weather-girl-wannabe, so I’ve decided to create some simple posts on my blog as we experience Typhoon Tembin in Taiwan. I think this will be a good way to share updates (including photos & videos) once we really get rockin’. Since the rain and wind haven’t started yet, I’ll give a little synopsis of what the storm has been doing so far. (And if by some crazy chance the typhoon is a complete let-down and peters out, I’ll let you know that too).

Anticipation of the arrival of Tembin has been building since early this week, but the typhoon’s slow pace has delayed its landfall by several days. Predictions of the storm’s path, strength, and speed have been all over the place! Currently, the storm is brewing just off the east coast of Taiwan, and it will probably make landfall as a category 4 storm (!) this afternoon in the eastern counties of Hualien and/or Taitung. Then it’s on a clear path to us in Kaohsiung City, and it’s projected to slowly cross over us as a category 2 or 3 storm. That’s a pretty strong storm, and it’s also supposed to drop a lot of water on us (upwards of 3 ft. in the mountain areas!). What does this mean for me? Probably lots of wringing out towels and sopping up water as it leaks through my balcony doors and in around the air conditioners. It also means feeling the building sway and listening to the howling winds (and the barking of a petrified little white dog). Hopefully, it will mean a day home from school tomorrow, since I’d hate to fight a storm all weekend and not get any time off from it!

Here are the current land typhoon warnings and heavy rain advisories for Taiwan:

As you can see, the whole island is in the warning zone. Yikes.

One interesting possibility is that the typhoon will pass us heading south-west and then do a U-turn and come back to visit again! How could that happen, you ask? I’ll talk about it more in my next post, but it has to do with another typhoon that will swing just north of Taiwan. I can’t make this stuff up!

That’s all for now. I’ll post pictures as the excitement begins (and as I write, the rain is starting). As much as I like storms and I enjoy experiencing the power of nature and of our God who created it and controls it all, I am also vividly aware of the destruction a storm like this could cause. Please be in prayer for the safety of all those effected but especially for the people on the east coast and in mountain villages where there are often landslides and flooding.

Stay tuned!

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A couple of worthy articles about Tembin can be found here:

• “CWB pushes back Typhoon Tembin landfall” ~ The China Post
• “Bureau issues land alert for Taiwan” ~ The Taipei Times