Vietnam likely to brace for more typhoons as La Nina appears

Strong winds bring down a big tree in Gia Lam district of Hanoi capital during the height of Yagi landfall in early September

Super typhoon Yagi, the most powerful storm in Asia in the past decades, pounded Vietnam in early September, leaving hundreds dead and missing. Its economic damage was estimated at US$3.3 billion.

According to Bloomberg, Southeast Asia could endure higher-than-normal rainfall in the near future, causing further disruptions to agriculture, tourism, and industrial output in a region already hit by subsequent storms this year.

Weather forecasters predicted that spells of heavy rainfall would occur in the Philippines and Vietnam through November, mainly due to the emerging La Nina phenomenon which moves warm water toward the western Pacific Ocean and causes more rainfall over the region.

Bloomberg also quoted the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre as saying that La Nina conditions are predicted from October November onwards, one of the factors contributing to the above-normal rainfall anticipated across several countries in the region.

The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Vietnam revealed that Vietnam is forecast to witness higher-than-average rainfall that could cause widespread flooding, especially in the central region.

Takahisa Nishikawa, forecast operations leader for The Weather Company, told Bloomberg that Vietnam could also see a higher number of tropical storms than usual through April, potentially “producing heavy rain with a risk of flooding, mudslides, and collapsed buildings due to strong winds.”

The news agency also quoted Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, as saying that tropical cyclones are going to get stronger because the underlying theory is that ocean temperatures are getting higher.

“The warmer the oceans, the more energy there is for tropical cyclones to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and places like Taiwan and Vietnam can expect to see more super typhoons,” he concluded.