Five to six typhoons are expected to hit Viet Nam’s mainland this year, the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has said.

Tourist boats anchored at Tho Quang Port in the central city of Da Nang to avoid a typhoon in November 2017.

Weather forecasts of the centre show that 12-13 typhoons and tropical depressions will form in the East Sea this year. Five to six of them are expected to have a direct impact on Việt Nam’s mainland, especially the central region.

The total amount of rainfall in the first half of the year is expected to be 15-30 per cent higher than previous years’ average in the northern, central and southern regions, the centre said.

Flooding is expected to occur in the central and Central Highlands regions earlier than in previous years. The peak discharge on all rivers in these regions is also expected to be higher than previous years.

High tides will appear in the coastal areas of the southern region in early October, November and mid-December and in the central region in mid-November and mid-December.

Storm surges and high waves are expected in the central coast. A strong and prolonged cold wave in the last few months of the year is likely to cause huge waves of 3-4m in height in the central coastal areas and southeastern region.

The first typhoon of this year hit Viet Nam in January, and there was a low atmospheric weather system in February. 

This shows that the stormy season in the East Sea had hit the country much earlier than in previous years, Le Thanh Hai, the centre’s deputy director, told the Thanh Niên (Young People) newspaper in early March. — VNS