As bad weather is expected to continue in coming weeks, dry season downpours similar to those that have recently hit Saigon will return, in addition to brutal heat.
According to VnExpress, the Southern Hydrometeorological Center has forecasted that April will see some of 2017's hottest days, along with severe thunderstorms. The center predicts average high temperatures may reach 39oC (102oF), while rain will soak the metropolis at times.
Le Dinh Quyet, a meteorologist from the agency, explained to the news source that April is normally the transitional month between the dry and wet seasons, but unseasonal downpours will alter this process. On April 1, a storm that drenched the city dumped up to 163 milimeters of rain on certain neighborhoods, one of the highest levels ever recorded so early in the summer, VnExpress says.
Quyet attributed the bizarre weather to climate change and warned that even worse conditions are on the way as El Niño, which caused a historic drought in the Mekong Delta last year, will return. The United Nation's World Meteorological Organization predicted in February that El Niño would arrive later this year, while the US National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center has called for its arrival as early as spring, according to the news source.
