The Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) announced in a statement yesterday that two tropical cyclones are forecast to enter the South China Sea between this weekend and next week.
The observatory confirmed yesterday evening that a tropical cyclone near the Philippines’ Luzon island has been classified as a tropical depression, named “Mitag”, (a Micronesian word meaning “My Eyes”). The observatory said that “Mitag” was expected to enter an area 800 kilometres from Macau last night. It issued Standby Signal No. 1. at midnight.
According to the SMG website, Signal No.1 (T1) indicates that a tropical cyclone is centred within 800 km of Macau and may affected it.
The observatory forecasts that “Mitag” will generally move towards the eastern coast of Guangdong during the weekend, expecting “Mitag” to bring more showers and thunderstorms starting tomorrow, accompanied by stronger winds. However, the observatory said, there was still large uncertainty regarding its track and intensity. The observatory urged the public to pay attention to the latest weather information.
The weather station also said that another “tropical disturbance” over the northwestern Pacific was gradually developing and expected to intensify into a tropical cyclone, entering the northeastern part of the South China Sea early next week.
According to various forecasting models, the statement said, the tropical disturbance is likely to develop into a tropical cyclone with a broad circulation and high intensity, entering the South China Sea early next week.
The observatory also said that due to the strengthening of a northeastern monsoon next week, there still remained significant divergence among the models regarding its subsequent path.
The statement added that the traditional numerical models predict that the tropical cyclone will traverse the northern part of the South China Sea, significantly impacting Macau with strong winds along the Guangdong coast. In contrast, artificial intelligence-based models forecast it making landfall along the eastern coast of Guangdong.
This tropical cyclone chart provided by the Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) last night shows the expected track of Tropical Depression "Mitag".
