Tourists and residents in Bangkok bundled up as the temperature in the Thai capital dipped to 17.5 deg C yesterday, with many regions in Asia shivering in unusual cold weather.
The cause of it? A cold wave from China making its way south.
The mercury dipped further elsewhere in the kingdom, including up north in Chiang Rai province, which recorded 8.6 deg C after daybreak.
The Thai Meteorological Department has predicted minimum temperatures of between 18 deg C and 20 deg C for the week in Bangkok.
Experts have warned of severe weather changes in Thailand this year, with the rainy season arriving later and a drought that will continue to affect farms across the country.
In Vietnam, temperatures in Hanoi dropped to 6 deg C at night over the weekend, which state-run media said was the coldest weather the country has experienced for two decades.
Weather-related deaths were reported in Japan and Taiwan, which registered a low of 4 deg C over the weekend, the coldest in 44 years. At least 85 deaths from hypothermia and cardiac disease were reported in Taiwan following the sudden drop in temperature, according to the BBC.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled across the region, with 60,000 holidaymakers stranded in South Korea.
In Hong Kong, primary schools and kindergartens were closed after temperatures plunged to a 60-year low of 3.3 deg C.
But in Singapore, it was warm and rainy, with temperatures expected to average between 25 deg C and 34 deg C this week.
Professor Jason Cohen of the National University of Singapore's civil and environmental engineering department said the cold snaps sweeping the North American and East Asian regions are "statistically highly unusual", and may be linked to climate change or the El Nino phenomenon, although there is no solid evidence yet.
But Singapore is unlikely to be affected as it is well protected by the ocean, he added.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
Bangkok bundles up, farmers in north fret over crops
City folk normally shielded under umbrellas piled on their jackets as Bangkok woke up to a 17.5 deg C chill yesterday.
The sudden cold snap, brought on by high pressure sweeping down from China, provided a refreshing change in the capital , which usually sees temperatures in the high 20s at this time of the year. But the cold weather was not so welcome up north, where farmers fretted about damage to their crops.
On the streets of Bangkok, motorcycle taxi driver Bantheng Phumthonwang, 40, had to layer two T-shirts under his jacket and wear thick riding gloves.
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86,000 stranded as 'tropical' Jeju freezes
Singaporean Claire Chen moved to South Korea's southern island Jeju thinking it was the country's own tropical paradise.
Over the weekend, however, the 38-year-old housewife got a shock when she woke up to 11cm of snowfall - the most in 32 years - as a cold spell hit the country, sending temperatures diving to as low as -20 deg C. Jeju, usually warm, was a freezing -6 deg C on Sunday.
Ms Chen's father, who was going to visit her, was stuck in Hong Kong for a night as Jeju International Airport cancelled more than 1,000 flights from Saturday due to heavy snow - up to 1m in mountainous regions - and strong winds.
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Rumours of snow draw 'frost chasers'
Along with the de rigueur dim sum and wanton noodles that Singaporeans visiting Hong Kong seek out, pilot Tan Howe Yang snared a rather different souvenir: snapshots of icicles.
On Sunday, he and three friends went hiking at Sai Kung in the New Territories when temperatures in the sub-tropical city dropped to 3.1 deg C - the lowest in nearly six decades.
Up in the mountains, it was below 0 deg C, with ice pellets and frost forming amid strong winds.
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Cold snap hits routes, travel for Chinese New Year
With the big chill coinciding with the start of the big annual movement of people going home for Chinese New Year, travellers are having to brave both the unseasonal cold and the inconvenience of travel delays.
More than 2.9 billion passenger trips are expected to be made during "chunyun" - or "spring movement" - this year, but the unprecedented cold snap that has hit the country has resulted in train delays, flight cancellations and highway closures.
Pictures in media reports here showed passengers wearing thick layers of clothing as they thronged trains for the journey home at the start of the 40-day chunyun on Sunday, which saw 400,000 people depart from Beijing's train stations.
