At 07.00am on August 14, Utor was 140km southeast of Guangdong province, packing winds of up to 166kph.

In the next 24 hours, the typhoon will move north and north-west and is likely to change it direction to travel north-west at a speed of 15kph.

Utor is forecast to churn along the northern border provinces of Vietnam

It is forecast to make landfall in the south-western part of China’s Guangdong province in the afternoon of August 14 and weaken into a tropical low depression.

At an urgent meeting on August 14, weather experts warned after hammering China, Utor will churn along the northern border provinces of Vietnam and bring torrential rains of up to 300mm to Haiphong, Quang Ninh, Lang Son and Cao Bang provinces as of August 15.

The typhoon will even cause high tidal surges in the coasts of Haiphong and Quang Ninh provinces as of August 13, they said.

Heavy rains will be lashing northern and northern mountainous provinces for several days until August 18, according to Le Thanh Hai, director of the National Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Centre.  

Hai also said that Utor is expected not to cause severe flooding in Hanoi and coastal provinces as it will not be backed by the southeastern wind.

Northern mountainous provinces were warned of flash floods and landslides.

Haiphong and Quang Ninh banned all fishing and tourist vessels from setting sail as of August 14. Other northern coastal provinces of Thai Binh and Nam Dinh also recalled vessels still out at sea to nearby storm shelters.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked northern provinces to reinforce reservoirs which were saturated with water due to heavy downpours caused by recent Mangkhut storm.

Utor is the seven tropical storm of its kind and is also the most powerful storm to hit the East Sea this year.