Heat wave to douse HCMC in hazardous UV

Southern parts of Vietnam including Ho Chi Minh City are now experiencing dry season.

"In the coming days, southern cities and provinces will suffer strong heat and scorching sunlight, with the highest temperature to surpass 35 degree Celcius," said Le Dinh Quyet, deputy head of the forecasting office under the Hydro-meteorological Observatory for the Southern Region.

As predicted by the center, in the next 10 days, the average temperature in the city will remain around 24-35 degrees Celsius. In this period, skies would be less cloudy than normal or have no clouds at all.

In the three days of March 1-3, the city's UV Index would reach the "very high" levels of 10-11.

The UV Index is an international standard measurement of the strength of ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Between 0 and 3 is considered low and above 11 is deemed extreme with radiation that could burn skin and damage eyes within 20-30 minutes.

American forecast services provider AccuWeather has made similar forecast, adding city air pollution reached unhealthy levels Monday and will remain unchanged for the next two days.

During the last dry season, HCMC and southern Vietnam suffered different heat waves lasting from March to June, with HCMC spending days beneath the scorching sun as temperature rose to 37-38 degrees Celsius.