El Nino, climate change cause HCMC to sizzle: expert

Le Thi Xuan Lan, a former deputy head of the Southern Regional Hydro-Meteorological Center’s forecast department, said the actual temperatures in the city could even be higher than what are recorded at weather stations, rising to 40 degrees Celsius at places like construction sites.

“According to predictive models … that use algorithms with environmental data, real feel temperatures in HCMC over the past few days were above 40 degrees.”

Climate change and El Nino create extreme weather patterns, including hotter dry seasons and colder winters, and make hails, thunderstorms, floods and the like more frequent and dangerous, she added.

The center said southern Vietnam is experiencing high temperatures, including 38.7 degrees in Bien Hoa in Dong Nai Province on Wednesday.

In the central region between Thanh Hoa and Phu Yen provinces, temperatures were 35-39 degrees.

Hanoi saw a maximum of 34 degrees.

Le Dinh Quyet, a current deputy head of the forecast department, said the Foehn effect combined with the high heat also caused dryness.

Ngo Duc Thanh, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi, said: “If 35 degrees was considered to be high before, in future it would become a normal threshold as higher temperatures like 40 degrees or 45 degrees are reached.”

A U.N. report said the El Nino phenomenon could become prominent in the next few months, pushing global temperatures to record levels.

While there is no indication about the intensity and duration of the next period of El Nino, its most prominent impacts might be seen in 2024, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Within the next two years there would be a significant increase in global temperatures, it added.