In wintertime, persistent stratocumulous clouds off the coast of northeast Taiwan produce more than 100mm/day, in sharp contrast to those over the eastern Pacific. 

Sitting between the world’s largest continent and largest ocean, Taiwan is strongly influenced by the monsoon system and by future changes in land–ocean thermal contrast. In winter, Taiwan lies along the edge of the subtropical jet stream. In addition, its proximity to the western Pacific warm pool places it within the longitudinal band where the regional Hadley circulation is strongest (see the local meridional mass streamfunction at 500mb in MAM above).

Taiwan gets about 2500 mm (~98 inches) of rain each year, and it often comes in extreme events.

On June 4, 2021, influenced by the Meiyu front and thermodynamic forcing, the automatic weather station at National Taiwan University in Da’an District, Taipei recorded an extreme hourly rainfall of 209 mm between 13:00 and 14:00 (photo above taken from the Department of Atmospheric Science Building).

Typhoon Morakot, which struck Taiwan on August 6, 2009, produced more than 2500 mm of rainfall within three days.

During the southwesterly flow event from July 28 to August 4, 2025, rainfall exceeded 200 mm per day at some stations for seven consecutive days, with a maximum five-day accumulated rainfall of 2382.5 mm.