VIETNAM: Vietnam recently experienced its hottest temperature, just over 44C (111F), but experts believe it may soon be surpassed due to climate change.
The record was set in Thanh Hoa, a northern Vietnam region where authorities had advised residents to stay inside during the hottest hours of the day. The weather has also been extremely hot in other countries in the area.
A record-equalling 44.6C was recorded in Thailand’s western Mak province. According to Myanmar’s media, a town in the east reportedly registered 43.8C, the highest temperature in a decade. Before the monsoon season both countries undergo a scorching time, but this year’s heat wave is more intense than ever before. Climate change specialist Nguyen Ngoc Huy told AFP that Vietnam’s new record was “worrying” in the “context of climate change and global warming” in Hanoi.
He predicted that the record would be repeated frequently. It “confirms the validation of the extreme climate model predictions.” Since the start of the industrial age, the world has already warmed by around 1.1C, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments drastically reduce emissions. Farmer Nguyen Thi Lan told AFP that the heat was driving labourers in Danang, the country’s capital, to start earlier than before and end by 10:00. Ha Tinh province in central Vietnam set the previous record high of 43.4C four years ago.
The capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, had its highest temperature since the 1960s further west. At the same time, Indian authorities reported that temperatures in some areas of the nation were three to four degrees above average. At the southern airport of Cordoba in April, Spain experienced the warmest temperature for the month ever. According to climate scientists, a significant global temperature goal was predicted to be missed in March.
Governments have vowed to take action to stop global temperature increases from exceeding 1.5C. But experts now predict the world will rise by 1.5C or more in the 2030s after warming by 1.1C. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that “every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards” in its report.
