Tropical storm Wipha became a depression at 1am Wednesday and hit Laos, 180km east of Thailand’s Nan province, at 4am, according to the Meteorological Department.
The department said early Wednesday morning that the storm was located in Xiang Khouang province of Laos at 4am with a top windspeed of 55 kilometres per hour near its centre.
The storm was moving at 25kph northwestwards and would ease, becoming a low-pressure area, it said.
The storm and the southwesterly monsoon would cause heavy rains and strong winds in the North, the upper Northeast, the western part of the Central Plains and the East on Wednesday and Thursday. Flash floods and run-off would be possible in sloping and low-lying areas.
