Guangdong may see more rainstorms and fickle weather conditions brought by intertwining typhoons Saomai and Bopha, which are presently separated by a mere 1,000 km, meteorologists said yesterday.

While Fujian Province, Guangdong's eastern neighbor, is more directly exposed to attacks from the twin typhoons, heavy rains brought by them may deal a new blow to Guangdong, which is still reeling from the destruction caused by previous typhoons like Bilis and Prapiroon.

Fujian meteorologists said Saomai and Bopha, which are moving on the western Pacific, will influence each other and vary their paths frequently. They may affect the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong from today.

Guangdong meteorologists also warned that high tides may strike the coastal areas of the province around Thursday. If storms and high tides come together, it could be catastrophic for coastal regions.

Bopha, the ninth tropical storm this year, was expected to make landfall in northern Taiwan last night or this morning as a relatively weak category-one typhoon.

Saomai, which means the planet of Venus in Vietnamese, was also moving towards Taiwan from the southeast, with a maximum sustained wind speed of 119 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 155 kilometers per hour, Taiwan's weather bureau said yesterday.

As Bopha, which means "flower" in Khmer, and Saomai are approaching, Guangdong meteorologists said the eastern parts of the province should expect rain from Thursday to Saturday.

Typhoon Prapiroon, which made landfall in Guangdong last week, killed at least 80 in China, including 42 in Guangdong.

The worst typhoon to hit China this season was Bilis, which struck July 14 and hovered over southern China for 10 days, killing at least 612 people.

(Shenzhen Daily August 9, 2006)