Today (Nov. 8) is Lidong (立冬), the first day of winter on the lunisolar calendar, and the lowest temperature recorded in the nation this morning was 16.4 degrees Celsius, hinting at colder weather to come over the weekend.
The mercury in Zhongliao Township in Nantou County dipped down to 16.4 degrees Celsius at 6 a.m. this morning. The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) predicts that temperatures in northern Taiwan will range between 19 and 23 degrees during the day.
The CWB forecasts that lows in the early morning in central and southern Taiwan will range between 18 and 21 degrees, while the high will still climb to 30 degrees. The CWB said that a cooling trend caused by cold air brought by a northeast monsoon will hit the country, with temperatures dropping as low as 16 degrees by Monday (Nov. 11).
In the lunisolar calendar, Lidong starts when the sun reaches celestial longitude 225° and comes to an end when the sun hits 240° longitude, which generally corresponds to Nov. 7 - Nov. 22 on the Gregorian calendar. The CWB predicts that the influence of the monsoon will bring cold air to northern Taiwan by Sunday (Nov. 10).
In addition, as there will be little in the way of cloud cover by Sunday, radiative cooling will cause the mercury to dip lower in the mornings and evenings. Sunday to Monday will see temperatures of 16 to 18 degrees, while in the rest of Taiwan, the mercury will range between 19 and 20 degrees.
