Tropical storm Wipha, the third to strike Viet Nam this year, formed in the East Sea on Wednesday morning, and is heading toward the mainland in the northern region, the National Hydro Meteorological Forecasting Centre (NCHMF) has warned.

A map detailing the track of the storm

At around 4.00 am on Thursday, the storm was located at latitude 20°0’N and longitude 110°8’E, about 370km south-southeast of the mainland of Quang Ninh Province and Hai Phong City, with maximum wind speeds near its center reaching 75 - 90kph (level 9), gusting at level 12.

Due to the effects of the storm, the northern part of the East Sea (including the Hoang Sa Islands) is suffering rough seas, strong winds at levels 6 - 7, and even level 8 near the storm’s eye, gusting at level 10, as well as high sea waves of 3 - 5.5m.

By 7.00 am on Friday, the eye of the storm may approach the coastline from Quang Ninh Province to Hai Phong City, with the strongest winds reaching 75 - 90 kph (level 9), gusting at level 11.

The storm will then move west at a velocity of some 10 kph, making landfall on the mainland from the Quang Ninh to Nam Dinh provinces and weakening into a tropical depression later.

From 2 - 5 August, Da Nang is predicted to see cloudy weather in the daytime, and experience scattered showers and thunderstorms in some of its parts in the nighttime, with winds levels 2 - 3 in the mainland. The temperatures are expected to hover at between 26 to 34 degrees Celsius over the coming days.

The city authorities have banned fishing boats and ships from sailing out to sea, and asked boats operating at sea to seek shelter from the storm in a prompt fashion.

Currently, 46 fishing vessels from Da Nang are operating at sea, and 24 of them with a total of 248 crew members in total are conducting fishing activities in the western part of the Hoang Sa Archipelago. Until now, all the fishermen have been notified about the location, direction and developments of the storm.

Previously, on Wednesday morning, DNa 90039 TS with a crew of 3 from Thanh Khe District, Da Nang, was sunk by large waves due to the impact of the ongoing storm, about 40 nautical miles northeast of the Son Tra Peninsula, whilst it was moving ashore to shelter from the storm.

Fortunately, all the 3 distressed fishermen were then saved by fishing vessel PY 99555 TS from the south-central Vietnamese province of Phu Yen, operating nearby at that time.