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The climate in the island presents great variety according to latitudes
and altitudes. Thus, we see tropical plants in the plein, while we have alpine
plants on the peaks. As the vegetation varies considerably according to
climate, the climatal elements (*) should be properly considered here.
Rainfall: The northern part of Formosa is a very rainy place and
perhaps one of the wettest places in the world. As will be seen in the following
table, kelung has as much precipitation as Bcutcnzorg.
A table of comparative rain fall for the world (in-inches).
Kelung..................................................... 150
Buitenzorg............................................... 150
Hongkong............................................... 96
Singapore................................................ 92
Koshun.................................... ■ • 91
T a i h o k n ............................................... 88
South C a p e ......................................... 87
A m o y ..................................................... 46
Ceylon..................................................... H
Calcutta . . .............................. 76
Manila..................................................... 76
Takaw...................................................... 74
Taichu..................................................... 73
Tainan..................................................... 58
K o b e ..................................................... 55
S h a n g h a i ............................................... 43
The most important climatal factors in Formosa are the southwest
monsoon prevailing from May to September, the north-east monsoon from
November to April, and the Japanese stream which blows up the east-west
of Formosa. In the season of the south-west monsoon, i. e. from May to
November, the nor thern part of the island generally enjoyes br ight sunshine.
In the southern part of Formosa, on the contrary the rainy season commences
in June. From December to April there prevails north-east monsoon, and in
the northern parts in the island the weather is generaly bad with drizz-
lingrain ; but in the southern parts, the weather is very mild and in September
the rains are very seldom. The following table will show rainfalls in different
parts in Fo rmo s a : Kelung being the northest, Koshun the southest,
Taihoku, Taichu, and Tainan, being the places between the two extremities.
(*) All me te o ro lo g ic a l f a c tor s given in this p a p e r arc q u o t e d f rom the Oo v e rnmc u t a l r e p o r t of the
T a ih o k u o b s e rv a to ry .
Rainfall Table for Formosa, Average of five years 1897 to 1901 (in inches).
M e a n d e p t h o f r a in f a l l
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January . . . . 16.6 3.6 12.6 0.6 0.6 25.0 17.2 8.8 5.4 10.
February . . . . 10.8 6.4 4.2 2.7 2.2 18.5 17.6 12.6 6.2 9.2
March . . . . 10.7 5.1 2.4 0.7 1.1 21.7 14.5 9.2 3.4 10.6
April . . . . 8.8 6.0 4.6 2.4 1.2 18.2 16.6 10.4 6.4 6.6
May . . . . 6.9 7.2 9.3 4.5 6.3 16,2 13.6 10 6 9.4 11.0
J u n e ........................ 9.8 10.1 14.9 14.9 28.0 17.2 16.0 17.6 16 6 19.2
July.............................. 3.3 9.1 9.5 9.2 11.4 7.4 12.6 14.4 13.8 21.4
August. . . 12.1 18.2 20.6 18.0 23.7 14,2 16.8 19.0 18 8 25.6
September . . . 14.4 10.9 5.0 2.8 5.7 13.4 13.1 6.4 7.6 13.6
October . . . . 18.3 6.3 0.4 1.3 7.3 19.8 14.5 3.0 6 . 0 14.8
November. . 22.7 3.4 0.8 1.0 3.7 24.8 18.1 6 .8 6.4 13.6
December. . . . 15.8 2.4 0.4 0.3 0.5 2 2 . 8 14.7 5.4 4.4 1 0 .2
Total for year . . 150.8 88.3 73 5 58.6 91.9 219.2 188.4 124.2 104,6 165.8
In this table it is clearly seen that from November to April, the
northern stations have more reinfall than the southern, while from May to
October it is vice versa. Kelung is the wettest place, then comes Koshun,
next Taikohu and Taichu, lastly Tainan. Taken as a whole, the island is a
very reiny place, and perhaps there are few places in the world with greater
precipitation.
Generally, the southern places are warmer than the northern
places. Therefore, mean annual temperature of air in Koshun is higher
by 5° F. than that of Taihoku, by 4° F. than that of Taichu, and by 2°.3 F.
than that of Tainan. As will be shown.in the following table, the range of
variation of temperature in the northern parts of Formosa, is greater than
that in the southern parts of the island.
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