HANOI: Vietnam has reported a record-high temperature, with climate experts warning such extreme weather events would continue.

The country’s scientists have warned that global warming is exacerbating adverse weather, with the region sweltering under a heatwave in April — when neighbouring countries also registered record temperatures.

A temperature of 44.1 degrees Celcius (111.38 degrees Fahrenheit) was measured in Vietnam on Saturday, the National Centre for Hydro Meteorological Forecasting said, breaking the 2019 record of 43.4 degrees Celsius.

Farmer Nguyen Thi Lan said that temperatures in the central city of Danang had been increasingly hot, forcing workers to start earlier than ever. “We have had to finish before 10am to avoid the heat,” she said. Lan said forecasters said temperatures had risen to nearly 40 degrees Celsius.

“But at lunchtime, I think it was much hotter.” Vietnam’s weather varies from north to south, but the entire country is now entering its hottest summer months.

The record temperature was measured indoors at Hoi Xuan station in northern Thanh Hoa province. It topped the previous high of 43.4 degrees Celsius, recorded in April 2019 at Huong Khe District in central Ha Tinh Province.

“This is a worrying record in the context of climate change and global warming,” climate change expert Nguyen Ngoc Huy said from the capital Hanoi.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2023