Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least five people dead and caused widespread damage after making landfall in central Vietnam on Thursday evening.
Three of the fatalities were recorded in Dak Lak Province, while the other two were in the neighboring Gia Lai Province. Both are inland provinces.
The typhoon has also brought torrential rains and powerful winds to the coastal city of Quy Nhon and neighboring regions, uprooting trees, damaging roofs, and shattering glass windows of buildings in several localities.
According to preliminary reports from local authorities, 52 houses collapsed and 2,593 others were damaged across the region.
Power, water and internet outages have been reported in most areas of Quy Nhon, along with severe traffic disruptions.
Local authorities are continuing to assess the damage and carry out recovery efforts.
The Vietnamese government has evacuated around 350,000 residents of 100,000 households from coastal areas, where schools have been closed and most stores have shut down.
According to the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the typhoon weakened into a tropical depression early Friday morning before further dissipating into a low-pressure area over southern Laos.
Typhoon Kalmaegi kills 5 in central Vietnam
A super El Nino event officially formed in September 2026, monitoring data from China's National Climate Center showed on Friday.
Zhao Junhu, chief forecaster at the center, said that the equatorial central and eastern Pacific entered an El Nino state in May this year, with sea surface temperatures in the key monitoring region rising rapidly and continuously from May to September.
The three-month running mean of the sea surface temperature (SST) index in the monitoring region has remained above 0.5 degrees Celsius for five consecutive months. The index exceeded 2.5 degrees Celsius for the July-September period, meeting the threshold for a super El Nino event.
The event is classified as an eastern Pacific-type El Nino, in which the warmest sea surface temperatures are concentrated in the equatorial eastern Pacific.
Monitoring data showed that sea surface temperatures across most of the equatorial Pacific in September were above average of the same period, with temperatures in the warm pool of the eastern Pacific exceeding the climatological average by more than 3 degrees Celsius.
The SST index for the monitoring region reached 2.94 degrees Celsius in September, up 0.35 degrees Celsius from August. The average index for the July-September period stood at 2.54 degrees Celsius.
Based on a combination of domestic and international dynamical climate models and statistical forecasting methods, the center expects sea surface temperatures in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific to continue rising over the next three months, peaking in late autumn or early winter, Zhao said.
The event is expected to become the strongest El Nino on record since systematic monitoring began, he added.
Super El Nino event formed in September: China's National Climate Center
