The temperatures drop to minus 1 or 2 degrees Celsius on the morning of December 17 on Fansipan mountain peak in Lao Cai province, a mountainous border locality in northern Vietnam. Thin layers of ice form on the surface and melt after about 30 minutes. At a lower altitude, the gladiolus garden and the train station to the Fansipan mountain see the ice melt after three hours. This is the first time since the beginning of winter this year, ice and frost have been recorded on the Fansipan mountain peak. The mountain peak is expected to be covered with ice and frost in the coming days when cold air waves intensify. According to weather experts, the temperature falls to 3.4 degrees Celsius in Lao Cai city at noon and it is likely to drop further. The ongoing cold front that hit the northern border of Vietnam early on December 17 is spreading across the northern region, causing temperatures to fall sharply. Temperatures are forecast to dip to between 8 – 11 degrees Celsius in the plain, 3-7 degrees Celsius in the midland and 0 and even below zero in the highlands.