HCMC – Typhoon Goni, the 10th storm expected to hit Vietnam this year, is forecast to leave a direct impact on and bring heavy downpours to localities in the central and Central Highlands of the country between November 4 and 6.
Nguyen Van Huong, head of the Climate Forecast Department under the national weather center, told Thanh Nien newspaper that although Goni has no longer been a super typhoon, it remains a powerful storm with complicated developments, prompting international weather centers to make different predictions about its effects.
The most common forecast made by international weather centers is that after Goni barreled through the central part of the Philippines, it will enter the East Sea, downgrade its intensity and head toward Central Vietnam. The system could continue to weaken then and affect a vast area.
Japan’s weather center forecast that Goni will make landfall in Vietnam on Wednesday, November 4 and has a 70% chance of affecting a vast region running from central Ha Tinh Province to localities in the south.
However, international weather centers made different forecasts about the storm’s intensity when it makes a landfall in Vietnam, which could range between level 9 and 10.
According to the national weather center, the storm after entering the East Sea has a 20-30% chance of intensifying and a 60-70% chance of weakening, adding that it will bring heavy rains and winds to central localities.
Meanwhile, Truong Ba Kien from the Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change forecast that Goni could change its direction many times and move slower than Molave, the previous typhoon hitting Vietnam, as it enters the East Sea. Therefore, Goni may pack winds blowing at level 8-9 and even weaken into a tropical storm as it makes landfall in the country.
