Less than a week after a tropical storm crossed the Philippines, another one has already formed and is moving in.

Just a few days after Kai-Tak, a tropical storm that left dozens of people dead in landslides in central Philippines, a new storm, Tembin, is heading towards the country – but further south.

Kai-Tak went across the Visayas, including the city of Tacloban, whereas Tembin is heading for the southernmost region of the Philippines: Mindanao.

The centre of the storm is following a course that takes it through northern Mindanao and westwards through the Sulu Sea to Palawan, an elongated archipelago that stretches from the Philippines towards Borneo.

As Kai-Tak approached the island of Samar, NASA’s measurements analysed a rate of rainfall of a stunning 193m per hour; the resultant flooding was widespread and chest-deep. Kai-Tak was a slow mover, at times almost stationary.

Tembin, locally called Vinta, is running in comparison. It has an approach speed of 25 kilometres per hour, which means less time for any heavy rain to fall. Nevertheless, model forecasts have a strip of predicted rainfall of about 400mm for the northeast coast of Mindanao and further west, covering Pagadian City.

More typically, figures of 200mm plus are likely over the north of Mindanao and the eastern side of Samar Island and Leyte, both drenched by Kai-Tak. Here, it will not take much rain to renew flooding and hinder the clean-up.

The heaviest rain reported so far as a result of Tembin is from the municipality of Loreto, in the province of Agusan del Sur, southwest of the storm’s centre and in northern Mindanao. In the last 24 hours, 172mm fell there.

Once over the South China Sea, and in contrast to its predecessor, Tembin may build to typhoon strength and head for southern Vietnam.