Prepare to sweat it out as the heat arrives in Saigon

Ho Chi Minh City and the south of Vietnam are once again braced for extreme heat later this month, and the end of La NiNa combined with climate change are likely to make the conditions even more uncomfortable than usual, according to weather forecasts.

The city will experience a heat wave after the March equinox, or March 21, when temperatures are expected to rise to 38-39 degrees Celsius, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

The annual heat wave will be more extreme and last longer due to climate change and the end of La NiNa, a phenomenon that is associated with cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that returned to Vietnam late last year, meteorologist Le Thi Xuan Lan told VnExpress.

The extreme heat normally lingers in the southern region until early May.