Tropical Storm Kujira has passed Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel)archipelago in the East Vietnam Sea and cooled down the scorching weather in central Vietnam before heading for southern China, the Vietnamese central weather center said on Monday. At 4:00 am on June 22, the storm was located north of Hoang Sa, packing winds of up to 90kph and squalls of 89-117kph, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said. Storm Kujira is moving north-northwest at 10kph, heading for the waters southeast of China’s Hainan Island. The current movement of the storm will bring cool air and rain to central Vietnam, helping cool down the baking weather that has raged since early May, with high temperatures having reached 42 degrees Celsius in some areas. At 10:00 am Monday the high temperature in the central city of Da Nang was 31 degrees, about six degrees lower than that of previous days. During the early days of this week, there will be rain in many provinces in the central region, easing the ongoing drought there, the center said. Due to the storm, the Gulf of Tonkin will have winds of up to 49kph and gusts of 50-74kph.   

In the middle and southern areas of the East Vietnam Sea, including the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago, the sea has been rough, with the same strong winds. The height of waves in the area ranged from two to four meters. The storm has also caused rough seas with gusts of up to 117kph in the waters around Hoang Sa. Waves in the area were three to five meters high. While moving to China’s Leizhou Peninsula, the storm will weaken into a tropical depression, the center said. After the storm hits southern China, likely on Tuesday, hot weather will return to central Vietnam again in the last days of this week, with high temperatures in the region from Thanh Hoa to Thua Thien-Hue Provinces to top 39 degrees, the center warned. In the coastal area from Da Nang to the south-central province of Binh Thuan, the high temperature will be about 37 degrees, the center added.

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