HANOI - Vietnam reported a record high temperature on Saturday with a north-central weather station measuring 44.1 deg C, officials said, breaking a previous high set in 2019.

South Asia has been sweltering under a heatwave for much of April, with neighbouring countries also registering record temperatures.

Vietnam’s weather varies from north to south, but the entire country is now entering its hottest summer months.

The record temperature of 44.1 deg C was measured on Saturday afternoon at indoor Hoi Xuan station in north-central Thanh Hoa province, the National Centre for Hydro Meteorological Forecasting said.

The figure broke the country’s previous high of 43.4 deg C, recorded on April 20, 2019, in Huong Khe District in central Ha Tinh province.

“This is a worrying record in the context of climate change and global warming,” climate change expert Nguyen Ngoc Huy told AFP from the capital Hanoi.

“I believe this record will be repeated many times,” he said. “It confirms that extreme climate models are being proven to be true.”

Scientists say global warming is exacerbating adverse weather, with a recent report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning that “every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards”. AFP