Over 100 heat records broken in Vietnam in April: weather agency

Deadly heatwave scorches Asia, breaking temperature records in Vietnam, as experts warn of more intense heatwaves due to climate change.

More than 100 temperature records fell across Vietnam in April, according to official data, as a deadly heatwave scorches South and Southeast Asia.

Extreme heat has blasted Asia from India to the Philippines, triggering heatstroke deaths, school closures and desperate prayers for cooling rain.

Scientists have long warned that human-induced climate change will produce more frequent, longer and intense heatwaves.

Vietnam saw three waves of high temperatures in April, according to data published on May 3 by the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, with the mercury peaking at 44 degrees Celsius in two towns earlier this week.

In all, 102 weather stations saw record highs in April, as northern and central Vietnam bore the brunt of the heatwave, with temperatures on average 2-4 degrees Celsius higher than during the same period last year. Seven stations recorded temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius, all on April 30.

The most dramatic sign of the extreme weather hitting Vietnam came in the southern province of Dong Nai, where hundreds of thousands of fish died in a reservoir.

Images showed locals wading and boating through the 300-hectare Song May reservoir, with the water barely visible beneath a blanket of dead fish.