Tropical depression off Vietnam’s central coast may evolve into storm

At around 1 p.m. Saturday, the tropical depression lay 250 km to the east-southeast of Vietnam’s Paracel Islands, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting. The maximum wind speed near the center of the tropical depression is 61 kph, and it was moving west-northwest at 10-15 kph.

The tropical depression is expected to evolve into a storm Saturday night, with a maximum wind speed of 74 kph. By 1 p.m. Sunday, it would be located 160 km to the southeast of China’s Hainan Island, and by 1 p.m. Monday, it would be located above the sea regions to the east of the northern parts of the Gulf of Tonkin.

After continuing to move northwest at 10-15 kph, it is expected to gradually devolve back into a tropical depression on Monday afternoon.

Meteorological agencies of Japan and Hong Kong both anticipated that the tropical depression would evolve into a storm within Saturday. Its maximum wind speed would reach 65 kph, and it would be moving towards China’s Hainan Island, they forecast.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Friday requested coastal localities from Quang Ninh in the northern coast to Binh Thuan in the south central coast to monitor the state of the tropical depression, as well as informing vessels of the tropical depression’s trajectories to avoid it.

The tropical depression is the second one to form in the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, over the past week. Previously on July 13, another one triggered heavy rains in Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue provinces.

About 11-13 storms and tropical depressions are expected to show up in the South China Sea this year, with 5-7 of them affecting Vietnam.