Tropical storm threatens East Vietnam Sea ahead of Lunar New Year
Typhoon Sanba may reach the East Vietnam Sea on February 15
By Duy Khang / Tuoi Tre News February 12, 2018, 11:03 GMT+7
A tropical depression which formed east of the Philippines has become a storm and is heading toward the East Vietnam Sea.
Typhoon Sanba developed on Sunday afternoon, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.
As of 4:00 pm on Sunday, the tropical storm was located about 1,000 kilometers southeast of the Philippines, packing winds at 60 to 75km per hour and gusts at up to 100km an hour.
It is forecast to travel westward at a velocity of 30km per hour in the next 24 hours.
By 4:00 pm on Monday, Sanba will have been 400 kilometers southeast of the Philippines, and its wind speed can reach 90km an hour.
In the next 24 to 48 hours, the typhoon is expected to continue its westward journey before reaching the southern Philippines on Tuesday afternoon.
It will keep heading west in the next 48 to 72 hours at an average speed of 25 to 30km an hour.
By 7:00 am on February 15, the storm will have been 450 kilometers east of Vietnam's Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago, with wind speed at 60 and 75km per hour.
Meanwhile, a cold front has been lowering temperatures in northern and north-central Vietnam since Sunday evening.
Average lows in the region are expected to be 11 to 14 degrees Celsius and can fall below five degrees Celsius in mountainous areas.
Southern localities are forecast to experience the lowest temperature of between 20 and 23 degrees Celsius and the highest of 28 and 31 degrees Celsius.