Vietnam braces for yet another storm - Nesat

The storm was 110 km to the north of Luzon Islands at 7 a.m. Sunday and is forecast to move northwest at 10-15 kph to enter the East Sea early Monday morning, according to the National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasting.

At 7 a.m. Monday, the storm will be around 650 km to the east of the Paracel Islands, carrying winds of 103–117 kph. It will move closer to around 330 km by Tuesday morning and get stronger, packing winds of more than 118 kph.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has forecast that the storm will enter the East Sea with nearly 110 kph winds and will get to its strongest, with winds of around 145 kph, by Tuesday, before heading to Vietnam's central coast from Quang Binh to Thua Thien Hue provinces.

The Hong Kong Observatory has forecast a similar trail, but put the storm's maximum wind speed at around 130 kph.

Nesat will be the sixth storm to enter Vietnamese waters this year and the third in the past three weeks. The latest one, Son Ca, weakened into a tropical depression Friday night before making landfall Saturday morning, bringing torrential rains that battered and submerged large areas of Da Nang and neighboring provinces of Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue.

Weather experts say that another two or three storms and tropical depressions are likely to directly affect central and southern Vietnam until January 2023.