Hong Kong’s weather forecaster will issue the Standby Signal No 1 at 8:40 pm on Friday, with tropical cyclone Noul to enter within 800 kilometers of the city and intensify gradually.

Noul has intensified into a severe tropical storm and was centered about 480 km north-northeast of Manila at noon, the Hong Kong Observatory said in a weather bulletin, adding that it was forecast to move west-northwest at about 26 km per hour towards the vicinity of Luzon Strait.

It will enter the northeastern part of the South China Sea on Friday and Saturday, edging closer to the coast of eastern Guangdong over the weekend, the observatory said.

“According to the present assessment, Noul has a higher chance to make landfall over the vicinity of Huizhou to Jieyang at first on Sunday, but there are still uncertainties in its distance from Hong Kong,” reads the HKO bulletin.

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The forecaster warned that it will be very hot at first on Saturday, but it is expected to be windy with heavy squally showers and thunderstorms over the coast of Guangdong later on Saturday to Sunday.

The observatory said it will assess the need for higher tropical cyclone warning signals on Saturday afternoon, depending on the change in intensity of Noul, the distance of its strong winds from Hong Kong and the local wind conditions.