Weather & Seasonal Riding
Typhoon or Tropical Storm Forecast for Northern Vietnam: Read the Bulletin Before You Ride
About 7 minutes to read
A typhoon or storm warning in the news is a headline; the bulletin behind it carries the times, positions and wind levels. For anyone on a motorbike rental in Hanoi, this page walks through where Vietnam’s national forecasters publish those bulletins, how their timing works, how one real storm report is laid out, what wind levels mean on the plains, and what Government guidance says about trips and parked vehicles. None of the pages read gives riders a wind level or time at which to stop riding, so none is made up here.
Where the bulletin is published
The UK government’s Vietnam travel advice (updated 21 September 2026) tells travellers to follow weather updates from the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF) and the Japan Meteorological Agency. The NCHMF home page, read on 25 October 2026, has a Weather menu with a “Bão – Áp thấp nhiệt đới” (storm and tropical depression) entry, a “Giám sát Bão/ATNĐ” (storm monitoring) tab, and a warnings list where each title ends with a date and time. A summary on the disaster-prevention department’s site describes the bulletins issued by the agencies it names, the national hydro-meteorological agency among them, as the official ones used to direct disaster prevention and response in Vietnam; the Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam Television and the Vietnam Coastal Information System are among the bodies that pass warnings on.
Bulletin types, lead times and update times
A ministry page dated 14 May 2021, describing the new points in Decision 18/2021/QĐ-TTg, gives the conditions for these bulletin types.
| Bulletin | Condition or content, per the page |
|---|---|
| Storm or depression on the East Sea (Biển Đông) | The system is on the East Sea and not yet likely to affect Vietnam’s mainland directly within 24 hours (depression) or 48 hours (storm) |
| Emergency (khẩn cấp) | The system is likely to affect the mainland directly within 24 hours (depression) or 48 hours (storm) |
| Quick bulletin (tin nhanh) | Gives the current position and intensity; updated hourly on the agency’s website |
The department’s summary defines the East Sea as the sea west of 120° East, north of 5° North and south of 23° North, and covers systems outside it that may move in within 24 to 48 hours. The ministry page also lists eight main storm and depression bulletins a day, at 02:00, 05:00, 08:00, 11:00, 14:00, 17:00, 20:00 and 23:00. It does not say which bulletin types follow that schedule, and none of the pages states a time zone for those times. Both the NCHMF list and the example below carry clock times; for the same habit of checking issue times with thunderstorm alerts, see Thunderstorm Alerts Versus Daily Rain Forecasts in Hanoi: Read the Issue Time.
One storm report, field by field
The Government e-newspaper carried forecasting-centre content for storm no. 4 (Bão NARRA) on 25 August 2026 at 14:40, with a track map credited to NCHMF. The headline gives both a number (no. 4) and a name (Narra). Its parts line up as follows.
| Part | Example wording, translated |
|---|---|
| Status (Hiện trạng) | At 13:00 on 25 August, centre near 19.4°N 108.1°E in the southern Gulf of Tonkin; wind level 8 (62–74 km/h) near the centre, gusting level 10; moving east at 5–10 km/h |
| Forecast table (24 to 48 hours ahead), first of two rows | 13:00 on 26 August: north-east at about 10 km/h; position 21.3°N 110.1°E, over land north of the Leizhou peninsula in China; weakening to a tropical depression, level 7, gusting level 9 |
| Danger zone, same row | North of 18.5°N and east of 107.0°E |
| Risk level, same row | Level 3: Gulf of Tonkin area |
| Impact | Gulf of Tonkin winds level 6–7, level 8 near the centre, waves 2.0–4.0 m, rough sea |
The department summary says storm and depression risk is graded only from level 3 to 5, shown in orange, red and purple on maps. The example carries a note from the forecasting centre that the storm was heading away from the mainland and was unlikely to bring strong wind to the coast from Quảng Ninh to Hưng Yên. Hanoi is not named in the storm paragraphs. A rain warning for the evening and night of 25 August (Northern region and Thanh Hóa, 15–35 mm, locally over 80 mm, with whirlwinds, lightning, hail and strong gusts possible) sits under its own heading, and flash-flood and landslide warnings have another.
What wind levels mean on the plains
A Hydro-Meteorological Department analysis (21 July 2025) describes each level from 8 upwards, with separate wording for the coast, the plains and the mountains; four plains entries are shown.
| Level | Speed | Plains effects, as the page words them |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | 62–74 km/h | Billboards, temporary awnings and small tin roofs easily blown off; large trees lose branches; motorbike riders find it hard to keep balance |
| 9 | 75–88 km/h | Weak grade-4 houses start losing roofs; large trees fall; some power poles and communications interrupted locally |
| 10 | 89–102 km/h | Old trees uprooted; many houses lose roofs; some roads blocked by fallen trees |
| 12 | 118–133 km/h | Solid houses damaged; trees and power poles fall in large numbers; transport, communications and power interrupted for days |
The level-8 line is the only motorbike wording on the page, and it sets no cutoff for riding. In the example, level 8 is the figure for the area near the centre, while the wider Gulf of Tonkin is given as level 6–7.
What Government guidance says about trips and parked vehicles
The Dike Management and Natural Disaster Prevention department’s guidance for storm no. 3, carried by the Government e-newspaper on 21 July 2025, lists 11 recommendations for the public. Those closest to a rider: follow forecasts and warnings; for tourist travel in the storm and rain season, keep checking weather and disaster warnings and proactively postpone or cancel trips in bad weather; avoid travelling to coastal, island or mountain areas or places at risk of landslides and flash floods; no going outside while the storm comes ashore, apart from emergencies where the authorities have given specific guidance; move motor vehicles to higher ground; and do not park where flooding is a risk. The page is general advice to the public and does not mention rentals.
For the everyday rain call, see Hanoi Rainy-Season Riding: A Go-or-Postpone Decision Checklist. For locking and parking, see Rental Bike Locking in Hanoi: A Practical Parking Routine. For a bike already in water, see A Rental Scooter Caught in Floodwater: Stop, Record and Contact the Shop.
Cross-checking with other agencies
The Met Office says the World Meteorological Organization has designated regional centres responsible for tropical cyclone warnings in their areas, which “should be used as a first source of information”. It lists the Japan Meteorological Agency in Tokyo for the Western North Pacific and, among other warning centres, the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center. It adds that its own guidance messages are not official forecasts and should not be used exclusively for decisions affecting life or property. The NCHMF home page links to a Japan forecast, the World Meteorological Organization, a United States Navy forecast and a European medium-range forecast.
What the pages leave out
- A wind level, distance or lead time at which a rider should stop riding, park or return a bike; the level-8 line is the only motorbike wording.
- Anything about rental shops and storm warnings. That is a question for the shop.
- The time zone of bulletin times, and which bulletin types follow the eight-a-day schedule.
- Whether the 2021 conditions and bulletin times still apply: the two pages on Decision 18/2021/QĐ-TTg are a ministry page of 14 May 2021 and an undated summary, and no page read says whether the decision has been changed since.
- Agency names agree only partly: the 2021 texts name the General Department of Hydro-Meteorology under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, while pages from 2025 and 2026 name the Hydro-Meteorological Department and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. No page explains the change.
- Hanoi storm forecasts: the example is one storm over the Gulf of Tonkin, carried by a news site, and it gives no wind or rain figures for Hanoi itself. The NCHMF home page does show a short daily weather entry for Hanoi, but it was read as a menu and headline list rather than as a bulletin.
- English-language bulletins: the wording above is translated from Vietnamese, and the English NCHMF address in the UK advice was not read.
- How accurate the Vietnamese forecasts are, or how far a track can shift. The Met Office page says only that intensity tends to be underestimated in its own global model, particularly for stronger tropical cyclones.
Sources checked
- NCHMF: home page
- Ministry site: new points in Decision 18/2021/QĐ-TTg
- Disaster-prevention department: Decision 18/2021/QĐ-TTg summary
- Hydro-Meteorological Department: effects of storm wind levels
- Chinhphu.vn: storm no. 4 (Narra) report
- Chinhphu.vn: storm and flood response guidance
- Met Office: tropical cyclone warnings
- GOV.UK: Vietnam travel advice
Thuê xe máy Nguyễn Hà is open 09:00–21:00 daily at Ngõ 5 Nguyễn Văn Cừ, Bồ Đề, Long Biên, Hà Nội (near Gia Lâm bus station). Phone: 0334 699 969.