BEIJING (Reuters) - China issued a "yellow alert" for Typhoon Nida, predicting it would hit the southern province of Guangdong on Tuesday (Aug 2), state-owned Xinhua news agency reported.

The National Meteorological Centre (NMC) issued the third-most severe alert on a four-colour scale, warning of strong winds and heavy rain along the coast affecting Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan provinces as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Nida will be the fourth typhoon to hit China this year with natural disasters killing 800 people since June, the worst casualties since a similar period in 2011.

The storm is currently off the coast of the Philippines, and weather reports indicate it will also hit the financial centre Hong Kong.

Nida is expected to pick up speed with winds forecasted to reach 38-45m per second by the time it makes landfall, according to the NMC.

Earlier this month, Typhoon Nepartak drove at least 420,000 Chinese from their homes and caused more than 7.1 billion yuan in losses in Fujian province alone.