Northern Vietnam to plunge in deeper cold

The new mass of cold air is on the move and is expected to affect northeastern areas first, before heading west, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting. It will

Due to the cold air, temperatures in northern Vietnam will remain low on the last days of February and in early March, with regions like Hoa Binh, Lao Cai and Yen Bai seeing low temperatures of 10-13 degrees Celsius, while mountainous areas will see temperatures at 5-10 degrees.

U.S. weather forecast service AccuWeather anticipated Hanoi’s temperatures to be at 13-21 degrees on Thursday, before dropping to 12-15 degrees on Friday.

Temperatures will gradually rise afterwards, reaching 27 degrees at the highest by next week. High-altitude locations like Lao Cai’s Sa Pa will see the lowest temperatures on Friday at 8-14 degrees.

North-central Vietnam would also feel the brunt of the new mass of cold air, with nighttime temperatures on Thursday and Friday at 14-17 degrees at the lowest.

Nguyen Duc Hoa, deputy head of the climate forecast department of the national forecast center, said that since 1991, there have been 13 years where cold waves plunged temperatures down below 15 degrees in the latter half of February. The longest cold waves happened in 1995 and 2000, both lasting six days, he added.

The ongoing cold wave in northern Vietnam has lasted five days starting Feb. 24, due to the effects of cold air and high-altitude winds. The cold air may also cause light rain in the north on Thursday and Friday, and hail may appear in localities from Quang Binh to Khanh Hoa from Friday to Sunday.