The highest temperature in Ho Chi Minh City and southeastern provinces will increase slightly from the current 36 degrees Celsius in the coming days, she said.

Humidity has been changing sharply during the day for the past few days from 40-50 percent in the morning to 80- 90 percent in the evening.

Lan forecasted storms and drizzle for the next few days in one third of the southern region, in the mountainous area of the Central Highlands Lam Dong Province, the southeastern Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai provinces and provinces near the Cambodian border, such as Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang.

Storms on Wednesday in Tay Ninh Province’s Ben Cau District blew off 15 roofs and destroyed 50 hectares of tobacco worth some VND1 billion (US$57,200).

From Tuesday to Friday next week there’ll be unseasonal rains in the Mekong Delta region, which will help ease the dry season and stave off soil salinity.

Dong Thap and Long An provinces have already experienced unseasonal rains this week with storms on Wednesday.

Lan said the early appearance of unseasonal rains means the peak of summer this year will come sooner, somewhere between late this month to mid April, with the high in HCMC reaching 38 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile in Hanoi, the average temperatures in the coming days will fall from 17.6 degrees Celsius to 14-15 degrees Celsius.

The cold weather will bring downpours and storms in the northern region from today until next Monday, also in the central region.

According to the National Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Center, the cold weather will be accompanied with drizzle in northern provinces in the coming week.

The Center’s Director Bui Minh Tang warned about a severe northern cold spell from March 15-20.

Southerly winds and hail have already appeared in northernmost Lao Cai Province and the nearby Son La Province instead of in April or May as in previous years.

A hail storm that lasted for seven minutes on Monday destroyed hundreds of hectares of safe vegetables (crops grown without chemicals or fertilizers) in Lao Cai’s Sa Pa District, the newswire VnExpress reported on Tuesday.

The Northern Regional Hydro-Meteorological Center has forecasted temperatures in northern mountainous areas will reach a low of 10 degrees Celsius, according to the newswire.

Source: TN, Agencies