Traveling Taiwan During Typhoon Season: Apps & Resources That Helped Me Stay Informed (English)

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I hoped I had played it safe when travelling to Taiwan in November, as Typhoon season is suppose to ‘finish’ in October. However during my visit, I was hit by a late season Typhoon, the first to directly hit Taiwan that late in the season in 60 years!

Coming from a country that doesn’t experience extreme weather conditions, I wasn’t too sure what happens in these situations. I had asked in a couple of Facebook groups and some of the responses were ‘it will be announced on the news’…but I don’t speak Chinese, so couldn’t understand what the TV news were saying!

So here are the resources that I had collected (with English translations!) and was tracking at the time when Fung Wong was in the vicinity!

@englandandeverywhere

Apps and Taiwan government websites that I’ve been using to track the storm/typhoon while in Taiwan. As I’m in a work/school closure area due to heavy rain, I just plan on staying in my hotel today. I bought drinks and food to last me for the day so I don’t actually need to go out. #taipei #taipeitravel #taiwantravel #typhoonupdate #taipeiweather

♬ original sound – Kylie✈️Budget Conscious Travel

Taiwan Typhoon Websites

Central Weather Administration

Link: https://www.cwa.gov.tw/V8/E/P/Warning/W26.html

❗️For: Weather forecasts & warnings

This is the main government weather website. Not only do they have general weather forecasts for all the regions and individual towns and cities, they have notifications for anything you may need to be aware of. During my trip there were alerts for:

• Typhoon
• High speed winds
• Heavy rain
• Sea/wave warnings
• Earthquakes

I would often be looking at the forecasts for the locations where I was due to be, and kept a watch on the rainfall and wind speeds specifically. They also had maps where you could see the exact places where the warnings were in effect for.

Directorate-General of Personnel Administration

Link: https://www.dgpa.gov.tw/typh/daily/ndse.html

❗️For: School and office closures

DGPA is another government website, but this one gives ‘work and class status during Natural Disasters‘. This is where locals keep track of school closures and recommendations for office closures. It shows all of the counties and can be translated into English.

I was in the north, so kept an eye on Keelung City, Taipei City, New Taipei City and Taoyuan City. On the Tuesday of my trip, it did display that in all of these regions there were school and office closures.

I was very lucky that it just so happened that with my pre-booked itinerary I was only planning on spending the day in Jiufen. It wasn’t a travel day or anything, so I just spent the day resting in my hotel rather than going out unnecessarily.

I had also stocked up on snacks on the Monday. In Taiwan there is a HUGE choice of pot noodle type meals, and my accommodation had a hot water dispenser, so I didn’t even need to wander out to get dinner.

On the Wednesday, all the regions around me were back to ‘school and work as usual’, so I knew I would be fairly safe to then continue on with my plans. The only thing I did find was that the rooftop hot spring of the hotel I moved to on the Wednesday was still shut. Which was a bit ironic as there was zero wind, no rain and it was 30c, yet it was then open on the Thursday which had tail-end rain again!

I had also been keeping a track on the ‘Taiwan Bus’ app and Uber. Some of the services were still operating on that Tuesday, just not so frequently. The sightseeing bus and the rail bike I had used on the Monday were suspended, but for the most part the major routes were still going.

It was rated as a Tropical Storm by the time it reached Taiwan during my trip, so I’m not sure if this would be different if it was stronger.

Cell Broadcast Alert

Link: https://246.ardswc.gov.tw/Alert?CTV=F18016&lang=1

❗️For: Landslide warnings due to heavy rainfall

When I was staying in Jiufen, I received an alert on my phone about landslides in the area of Houtong, which wasn’t too far away. It included a link to a website that could be translated into English. It showed a map pin pointing my location and where the landslides were in relation to where I was.

I first received an alert with just a warning that there had been extremely heavy rainfall and they were monitoring a couple of areas. About 2 hours later, I received a second alert saying that if you were in the highlighted area (I wasn’t), then you needed to evacuate as it had been increased to a red alert.

The website had lots of information including:

• Alert zone area
• ‘What should I do’ status
• Current rainfall
• Suggested emergency supplies and what to bring if evacuating
• Evacuation shelters and phone numbers (plus a map with the ‘safe’ route to follow)

It was written in a way that was really easy to understand and included pictures and diagrams.

General Websites

Tropical Storm Risk

Link: https://www.tropicalstormrisk.com

❗️For: Wind speed/Typhoon status & track

This is a website specifically for tracking storms. It shows you the predicted track direction, with dates, windspeed and the storm strength status. I could see that before it reached Taiwan it was potentially going to downgrade to a Tropical Storm (which it did), and the wind speed wasn’t actually going to be that fast.

During my experience it was heavy rainfall which was the biggest problem though, rather than high wind speeds (especially on land, sea was predicted as being higher).

Although it seemed to be pretty accurate, it was more of a general track, rather than being able to see in detail about my specific location.

General Weather Apps

Windy.com

Link: https://www.windy.com/ (but I used the app)

❗️For: Wind speed, track & rainfall forecasts

I became OBSESSED with Windy.com. I loved it and found it to be fairly accurate for tracking weather forecasts. There are a whole bunch of different filters you can put on the map.

You could visually see the wind speed and Typhoon formation movement along a scrolling timeline. This is where I could see that the highest wind was mostly off the coast and not so much on land, which matched up to what the government forecast was saying too.

As I mentioned, rain seemed to be the biggest factor in my experience, and there was a filter for that too, so I could see the forecast and when the rain was meant to be the heaviest and where. Again, it seemed accurate to what was actually going on outside my window! Although you can see a few weeks in advance, it was the most accurate when looking just a few days out.

I will be using this app more often and for future travels.

Accuweather

❗️For: Weather forecasts & warnings

This is a normal weather app/website, which can sometimes be a bit hit and miss. I actually find Apple Weather more accurate. However, there is a feature that I like on Accuweather which is the ‘Hurricane Center‘.

On the app, this is the little storm symbol next to the location bar. When you click on it, it shows a list of active storms. You can then click on the storm for more details. It shows the predicted track, dates and windspeed.

Final Words/Tips

Using a mix of all of these apps and websites, I was able to stay informed from official government resources as well as general weather forecasts. For me it was important that I could find accurate information in my own language and having the visual aspects, it helped me to get an idea of if I was going to be safe.

When I thought it was going to hit as a Typhoon, I also had a couple of plan B and Cs in mind. I had all my accommodation pre-booked in advance. As a solo traveller I like having a set in stone itinerary so I know I have somewhere to stay each night. This would have taken a little bit more effort if I needed to change anything or stay somewhere longer.

I had ideas in my head, which mostly involved hoping that my current hotel would be good enough to help me communicate with the next hotel regarding my next reservation, and I had looked on booking.com to see if they had any availability if I needed to stay an extra night etc.

When it came to the activities and things to do on my itinerary, this was a lot more flexible. I actually doubled up and saw EVERYWHERE I wanted to see in the first week, including the following 2 locations where I had planned to stay for a few nights. So I didn’t really miss out on anything I had wanted to do.

Then when the worst of the rain did come, I did just spend the whole day in my room having a rest day. Luckily it didn’t fall on a travel day and the areas where I was, weren’t badly affected. At the end of the day, safety is the most important thing.