Vietnam is a southeast Asian country, and is the easternmost country of mainland Southeast Asia. It borders the East Sea, hence, seeing the increased likeliness of tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones in this area are considered to be part of the Northwest Pacific basin, and therefore, storms here are considered as typhoons.
Climatologically, in the Northwest Pacific basin, most tropical cyclones tend to develop between May and October. Typhoons impacting this region are relatively common, with most of these storms doing so from the middle of the year. The most active tropical cyclone season for Vietnam is in 2013, with their meteorological agency tracking 15 storms, in which 9 have made landfall. This article includes any tropical cyclone of any intensity that affected Vietnam.
Vietnam recognises its typhoon season from the beginning of June through to the end of November,[1] with an average of four to six typhoons hitting the country annually.[2] Any tropical cyclones here are monitored by the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF), which is the nation's official meteorological agency and was established in January 2003. The NCHMF tracks a storm should it enter the agency's monitoring area range which is within the East Sea to the west of 120°E and north of 5°N. Any storm that enters this area is assigned a number, and is set according to its sequence of its occurrence – as for instance with Bão số 1 etc., which translates to "Storm no. 1". Bão comes from "暴', meaning ferocious, violent or vicious, but in vernacular Vietnamese has come to mean "storm".
A study was investigated in the correlation of rainfall and tropical cyclones during El Niño and La Niña seasons, and showed that there is an increase of rainfall and tropical cyclones during La Niña seasons.[3]
Month | Number of Storms |
---|---|
January | 1
|
February | 0
|
March | 0
|
April | 1
|
May | 0
|
June | 4
|
July | 9
|
August | 10
|
September | 18
|
October | 12
|
November | 17
|
December | 2
|
The following list are the ten deadliest storms that impacted Vietnam. Total number of deaths recorded are only from the country itself.
Rank | Name | Year | Number of Deaths |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Linda | 1997 | 3,111 |
2 | "Haiphong" | 1881 | 3,000 |
3 | Cecil | 1989 | 751 |
4 | Chanchu | 2006 | 241 |
5 | Ketsana | 2009 | 179 |
6 | Kammuri | 2008 | 127 |
7 | Mirinae | 2009 | 124 |
8 | Linfa | 2020 | 112 |
9 | Damrey | 2017 | 107 |
10 | 23W | 2017 | 100 |