Vietnam would face up to 13 storms this year, including several major ones, said an official from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

According to Tran Hong Thai, head of the ministry’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, the northern and central region would see an on-year average temperature rise of 0.5-1.5 degrees centigrade this year. However, the scorching hot days will not last so long.

Earlier, experts also warned that Vietnam would suffer the highest temperatures ever recorded in 2020.

The country is predicted to experience increasing and complicated pattern of natural disasters this year due to the impact of global warming and melting of glaciers.

Since earlier this year, abnormal weather events have been reported in different areas of the country, including unprecedented hailstorms in northern provinces in March.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that never before had Vietnam seen such a violent hail with thunderstorms on lunar new year’s eve and on the first day of the lunar new year.

So far this year, four big hail storms were also reported in some localities. Meanwhile, on April 4, Hanoi saw the temperature drop to just 16 degrees centigrade, the lowest for over 50 years.

The Mekong Delta region also faced historic drought and saline intrusion along with erosion and earthquakes.

By the end of April, natural disasters killed and left 11 people missing in Vietnam, damaging 44,000 houses. This resulted in a total loss of around VND3.1 trillion (USD134.78 million).

This year’s winter would come earlier than usual with strongest cold spells to be seen from mid-December to February of the next year.

Last year, 113 people in Vietnam were killed or left missing because of natural disasters compared to 224 of 2018. Up to 1,300 were swept away and more than 40,000 households were damaged, causing a total loss of VND7 trillion (USD304.3 million) against the figure of VND20 trillion and VND60,000 of 2018 and 2017 respectively. Dtinews