Cold air to arrive in northern Vietnam Thursday night

The cold air would come to northeastern region first before impacting the northwestern area, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting. The mass of cold air itself however is not strong, and would not result in severely cold periods.

Temperatures in northeastern areas and localities like Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Hoa Binh would see their lowest temperatures at 17-20 degrees, with certain mountainous areas seeing temperatures as low as 12 degrees.

U.S. weather forecast service AccuWeather anticipated Hanoi's temperatures to be at 22-30 degrees on Thursday, before gradually dropping to 17-23 degrees towards the weekends. The coldest period would be on Tuesday next week, with temperatures at 17-19 degrees. High-altitude locations like Sa Pa would see temperatures dropping to 11-12 degrees towards the weekends.

Central Vietnam regions will be less affected by the cold air, with only Thanh Hoa seeing temperatures drop to 20 degrees.

Rains are forecast in northeastern Vietnam from Thursday night to Saturday, meteorologists said. There would be risks of hails, strong winds and other extreme weather patterns in north-central Vietnam from Friday to Saturday, they added.