Tropical Storm Dianmu has caused widespread flooding in 30 provinces in central, northern and northeastern Thailand, affecting more than 70,000 households, the country’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said.
Saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta will remain an issue between now and late April, an official from the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has forecast.
In about a month, scientists will issue conclusions on the extent to which climate change has had a hand in the latest extreme weather phenomena hitting Vietnam.
Floods triggered by torrential rains in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue have claimed six lives and left three people missing and seven injured, the provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention, Search, and Rescue reported on October 13.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on April 30 that water levels along the vast majority of the lower Mekong basin have now returned to normal long-term averages but are still lower than those during the 2018 and 2019 dry season.
Lightning killed one person in Lao Cai after thunderstorm and hails hit the northern mountainous province from the evening of March 24 until in the early morning of the next day.
Little rainfall is forecast across the country in March and April, the remaining months of the dry season, particularly in the central region, said Vu Duc Long, Deputy Director of the National Centre for Hydrometeorological Forecasting.
Indonesia’s weather bureau on January 6 warned that more heavy downpours are expected after rains triggered flooding and landslides last December, killing at least 66 people in Jakarta and surrounding areas.
The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap plans to release floodwaters into 90,200ha of rice fields in this year’s rainy season to fertilise the soil and flush away rice disease pathogens.
The Mekong Delta, the country’s rice granary, will see summer – autumn rice output increase by 150,000 tonnes this year, the Plant Cultivation Department has estimated.
Salinity and droughts will come earlier and be more severe than in the 2018-2019 dry season in the Mekong Delta, according to Hoang Phuc Lam, Vice Director of the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.
Heavy rain on August 6 and 7 has flooded hundreds of houses and thousands of hectares of crops in Buon Don and Ea Sup border districts in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.
Heavy rainfall is expected to continue in the northern region and the central province of Thanh Hoa over the weekend, the National Hydro-Meteorological Forecast Centre has warned.
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