Vietnam has evacuated more than half a million people as it braces for Typhoon Kajiki which, at the time of writing, is forecast to make landfall near the city of Vinh on Monday. Boats and flights have been cancelled in preparation for the typhoon’s impact.
Kajiki developed into a typhoon on 23 August as it travelled across the South China Sea. It continued to strengthen, with sustained winds reaching more than 100mph (160km/h), as it travelled just to the south of Hainan, an island province in southern China. A red alert was issued for Hainan, which is the highest alert level in China’s warning system.
The typhoon is expected to bring more than 300mm (11.8in) of rainfall to parts of Hainan and Vietnam on Monday, causing flooding that is likely to have a severe impact on farmland. On Tuesday, Kajiki is forecast to rapidly weaken as it travels inland across Vietnam and Laos owing to the lack of warm seas required to fuel the storm.
Across the Atlantic, despite Hurricane Erin remaining about 200 miles (320km) away from the coast of the US as it moved across the western Pacific last week its impacts could still be seen along the coast as large swells washed away beaches and flooded houses.
Waves of almost 50ft (about 15 metres) were recorded by a buoy in the western Pacific on Wednesday night, with waves breaking at about 20ft along coastal areas. As Erin tracked away from the east coast of the US last week it become a post-tropical cyclone, but still remained a powerful system with sustained winds reaching about 90mph. Erin will stall to the north-west of Britain through this week and weaken without causing much of an impact to western Europe.
However, the swell produced by Erin will continue to propagate into the west coast of Europe causing hazardous rips and large waves. Waves at the popular surfing spots of Mullaghmore on the west coast of Ireland and Nazaré on the west coast of Portugal are expected to be above 20ft on Tuesday.
Brazil also experienced large swells brought by a deep low pressure system in the southern Atlantic that produced the largest wave ever surfed in the country at 48ft. Another tropical system named Fernand developed shortly after Erin in the western Pacific last week, although this system is not expected to make landfall or strengthen into a hurricane, partly owing to a lesser amount of warm water across the western Pacific brought by the upwelling as Erin passed.