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Taiwan's Yushan sees first snowfall of the season as cold surge arrives

Yushan has broken its 66-year-long record for the latest snowfall on the mountain

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Taiwan's Yushan sees fresh snow on Jan. 21, 2019 (Courtesy of Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau)

Taiwan's Yushan sees fresh snow on Jan. 21, 2019 (Courtesy of Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau) (Taiwan News photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- As a continental cold air mass is poised to strike Taiwan on Monday, the country's tallest peak, Yushan (玉山), saw its first snow of the season, which also has broken its 66-year-long record for the latest snowfall.

Snow began falling on Yushan at 10:20 a.m. Monday morning (Jan. 21), and recorded an accumulation of 0.7 cm of snow within an hour. Yushan's Paiyun Lodge also started recording snowfall at 10:45 a.m.

The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said that cold air is moving south, and temperatures are rapidly dropping, with northern, central, southern and eastern regions seeing temperatures drop to 14, 16, 18, and 16 degrees Celsius at 11 a.m. on Monday.

The mercury will continue to drop on Tuesday and Wednesday, and it could reach as low as 9 degrees Celsius in northern Taiwan on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

The CWB pointed out today there will be a chance of snowfall on mountains over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) above sea-level across the country on these two days, if there is enough moisture in the air.

The video of the snowy Yushan (image courtesy of the CWB):