At around 5 a.m. on Jan. 10, on the sidewalk along Do Xuan Hop Street, Quach Hoang Kha, 24, lit a fire to warm himself while preparing to sell food. “After many years in Saigon, I have never felt it this cold,” he said.
Over the past three days, temperatures across southern Vietnam have dropped sharply, with many areas in Ho Chi Minh City recording lows of 17 C, the lowest in 10 years.
On Nguyen Dinh Thi Street, a woman wrapped herself in a warm jacket, shivering in the unusually cold weather.
Le Dinh Quyet, head of the Forecasting Department at the Southern Regional Hydro-Meteorological Center, said the cold spell was caused by a strong cold air mass from the north spreading deep into the region, combined with strong northeast winds and nighttime cloud-free conditions that allowed heat to dissipate quickly.
At an apartment building in Phuoc Long Ward, two night-shift workers put on extra layers to stay warm.
According to the Southern Regional Hydrometeorological Center, January is typically the period when cold air is most active each year. While temperature drops are normal for the season, a low of 17 C is considered rare over the past decade.
At a park beneath Saigon Bridge, many people exercised while wearing warm jackets, gloves, and tightly wrapped scarves.
A dog was dressed in a warm coat by its owner and carried for a walk around an apartment complex on Pham Viet Chanh Street, in what was formerly Binh Thanh District.
Thanh Mai, a resident of Ben Thanh Ward, said she had to prepare extra jackets and wool scarves for her seven-year-old daughter, Khanh Van, when taking her to school, worried that the cold weather might make her sick.
According to the Southern Regional Hydro-Meteorological Center, the cool weather is expected to persist during early mornings and nighttime over the next few days.
