Vietnamese Updates: Extreme climatic events in the North and South (9 Jan 2013)

Extreme climatic events in the North and South Thứ tư, ngày 09 tháng 01 năm 2013 cập nhật lúc 05:41

The country records a higher frequency of extreme weather, evidenced by an extreme and prolonged cold spell in the north of Vietnam and storm in the south of Viet Nam arrived much earlier than in the past 30 years, said the head of Lao Cai Province Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, Luu Minh Hai.

After 52 years, the North records a severe and prolonged cold. Currently, the North suffers a time of frequent drizzle, especially in the mountainous areas. This extreme cold has two unusual things. First, it is the first and damaging cold occurred in the 2012 - 2013 winter but appears later compared to recent years. As normal, the first bitter and damaging cold spell in the north often occurs before or after Christmas a couple of days. Second, this cold spell breaks the previous records in the last half century and starts on 31 Dec, 2012 up until now. 

On the coast and in the lowlands face the quick decrease of temperature. Temperature amplitude between day and night is very small in the range of 4 - 5 degree Celsius.

On 6 Jan, 2013, the lowest temperature recorded during this cold in the northern lowland is in the town of Ha Nam down to 8.9 ^oC, Hanoi 8.7^oC and Nam Dinh City 8.5^oC.

The low temperatures also occur on the high mountainous areas.  Mau Son Mountain (Lang Son Province) fell to 0.1^oC on 31 Dec, 2012and 6 Jan, 2013, Trung Khanh (Cao Bang Province) 2^oC 31/12, Sa Pa (Lao Cai Province) 0^oC on 31 Dec, 2012. Since this winter, this isthe lowest temperature decrease in the north.

In particular, a number of mountainous areas such as Nguyen Binh (Cao Bang Province), Sapa, Bat Xat (Lao Cai Province), Loc Binh(Lang Son Province) appeared frost with light to moderate intensity. Sa Pa has the most severe frost intensity lasted three days, from 30 Dec, 2012 to 01 Jan, 2013.

After exactly 52 years, the ongoing record, damaging cold spell occurs in the North of Vietnam. In the 1961 - 1962 winter, the Northsuffered a first 13-day bitter and damaging cold. It began on 29 Dec, 1961 and ended on 11 Jan, 1962.

While the South joins a pretty cool weather, with scattered showers and thunderstorms. However, the southernmost provinces in the South affected by the circulation of storm N. 1 have rains over wide areas; some places have moderate rain and heavy rain.

Unusual storm in East Sea

In the beginning of 2013, Storm N. 1 (Sonamu) moved to the East Sea and influenced mainly in the southern provinces. This was an unusual storm arriving earlier in at least thirty years. Normally, storm in the South appears early in February; sometimes at the end of January, however storm Sonamu appeared quite early. "This is an extreme climatic event in the East Sea in early 2013," Mr. Hai said.

Source: 
http://www.monre.gov.vn/v35/default.aspx?tabid=675&CateID=59&ID=124460&Code=LKGI124460