Motorbike drivers huddle in the shade of the Cat Lai Bridge in Thu Duc City as they wait for the traffic light to turn green.
For a week now, the average temperature in HCMC has risen to 36 degrees Celsius, but the urbanized concrete jungle pushes the mercury even higher to 38 degrees Celsius and beyond.
A woman dozes off in a tricycle, wearing a jacket with a hood, sunglasses and a long face mask.
American weather station AccuWeather and the U.K.'s Weather Online have forecast that the city's UV Index would reach "very high" levels of 10-11 between March 1 to 20.
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.
Duc Anh, a university student, uses his jacket to cover his head as he walks to a bus stop at noon.
"The weather is so hot these days. Just walking in the street for 10 minutes or so and I feel I can get a sunstroke," he said.
At the Hang Xanh Intersection in Binh Thanh District, a woman is using a bicycle helmet and attire that leaves no inch of her body uncovered.
On Cong Hoa Street in Tan Binh District, Chuong, a GrabBike driver, has a man spray water on his motorbike’s exhaust pipe to cool it down.
"Every day, I have to drive hundreds of kilometers to carry passengers. In scorching weather, the engine is also hot too," the driver said.
A watermelon seller on Hanoi Highway, the main route connecting Thu Duc City with the center of Ho Chi Minh City and southern provinces like Dong Nai and Binh Duong, uses her conical hat as a fan to cool down.
Apart from covering herself completely, she has to put a roof above the watermelons to prevent them from getting spoiled in the sunlight.
A group of urban drainage workers on Nguyen Thai Son Street in Go Vap District take turns to pour water on their heads and faces using their helmets.
Vo Van Vo is bathed in sweat after he climbs up from a sewer pipe.
"The sewers are underground where the wind does not reach. After working for just half an hour, I looked as if I had taken a shower.”
At a construction site in Thu Duc City, a worker wears two layers of hats, scarves, masks before starting work.
A woman rests in a hammock under green trees.
Le Dinh Quyet, deputy head of the forecasting office under the Hydro-meteorological Observatory for the Southern Region, said that it will get hotter in the south in April and May, with temperatures in HCMC rising up to 38-39 degrees Celsius.
Parents allow children to play among water fountains in a park at the foot of the Saigon Bridge in Thu Duc City.
Quyet said mid-March could also see the southern region receive some unseasonal showers, but the volume of rainfall would not be significant and there would be no respite from the heat waves.
