HCMC temperature drops to 19 degrees

People on motorbikes had to cover themselves in warm clothes while many street vendors sat huddled up due to the cold.

"It is much colder than usual this morning," a banh mi vendor named Sang, 39, said.

The Southern Hydrometeorological Centre said the weather station in Tan Binh District in HCMC recorded 19 degrees on Saturday morning.

It stayed at 18 degrees in Binh Phuoc, 18.5 degrees in Binh Duong, 14.5 in Dong Nai and ranged between 19 and 21 in the Mekong Delta.

Le Thi Xuan Lan, deputy head of the center, said temperatures are 1-2 degrees down from previous cold periods the city experienced this month.

"It is rare this year when the cold weather came to the city during Christmas holiday. The city is usually warm during this period," Lan said.

She said from now until the Lunar New Year, which comes in a little over three weeks, the city would experience at least three more cold periods, with the next one expected on December 29 when temperatures would go even lower.

The lowest temperature recorded in the past decade in HCMC was 17 degrees in 2009.

The lowest on record was on December 25, 1999, when it dropped to 16.4 degrees.