South-east Asia faces sweltering heat as war limits energy supply

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South-east Asia is set to see a warmer-than-usual early summer, potentially raising power demand for fuel and straining grids at a time when the Middle East conflict has tightened energy supplies in the region.

Across most of maritime and mainland South-east Asia, home to more than half a billion people, temperatures will be above average for the March-April-May period, according to the latest seasonal outlook published by the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) on March 6.

The forecast comes as the US-Israeli war against Iran upends transport and output across the Middle East, sending energy prices soaring. A prolonged disruption would threaten fossil-fuel reliant South-east Asia’s power generation into April and May, when the mercury can climb to sweltering levels.

There is an 80 per cent to 100 per cent chance of above-normal temperatures across Indonesia and Malaysia, according to ASMC’s projection for the three-month period.

The unseasonal heat is likely to first set in over those two countries, and then expected to expand to much of mainland South-east Asia in the following two months. Swathes of Thailand and northern Vietnam are also set to bake in the heat, the centre said.

Only small pockets of the region, including south-eastern Vietnam, Cambodia, and parts of the Philippines, are forecast to see near-normal temperatures.