Vietnam likely to experience intense heatwaves in 2025

HANOI (Xinhua): Vietnam will likely experience intense heatwaves and scorching weather in 2025, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has warned.

Vietnam News quoted Mai Van Khiem, the centre’s director, as saying that localised heavy rains, flash floods, landslides and an increased frequency of large storms were also predicted next year.

He described 2024 as a challenging year marked by diverse and extreme natural disasters, including drought, saltwater intrusion, severe heatwaves and widespread heavy rains.

Notably, Typhoon Yagi caused significant loss of life and damage to property, he said.

In 2024, the center reported nine storms, 19 heatwaves, 21 heavy rain events and 39 flash floods across all Vietnamese regions.

In the first 11 months of this year, natural disasters, mostly torrential rain and floods, left 541 dead or missing in Vietnam and injured 2,189 others, said the General Statistics Office. – Xinhua