Unprecedented heat will cover Southeast Asia

Climate experts predict that extreme heat will return and last longer in Southeast Asia .

The sweltering heat is affecting the areas most vulnerable to climate change, according to CNN .

A resident tries to pump water from a dry well in Ninh Thuan province on April 6. (Photo:
Stringer/AFP)

In Malaysia , at least two heat-related deaths were recorded, including a 22-year-old man from the northern state of Pahang and a 3-year-old boy from neighboring Kelantan state. Both died from heat stroke. Authorities in Sabah, a state on the island of Borneo, reported nearly 300 fires breaking out in farms, plantations and forests in February. Climate change left Malaysia exposed to extreme heat.

In Vietnam, heat caused severe drought in the south, pushing temperatures up to nearly 40 degrees Celsius and causing heavy damage to agriculture. Last week, Vietnam also declared a state of emergency after unusually high temperatures in the south left fields dry. The rivers are dry, causing farmers to struggle without water to irrigate their fields.

In the Philippines , hundreds of schools had to close after daily temperatures rose above 42 degrees Celsius.

In Singapore , some schools require students to wear cool clothes until further notice, amid high temperatures that have persisted in recent weeks. Hundreds of schools in the Philippines, including the capital Manila, also took similar measures, even letting students off after temperatures exceeded the tolerance level.

Thailand was also the hardest hit, with temperatures across the country continuously breaking records for 13 months with intense heat and extremely high humidity.

"We think that last year's temperature was beyond tolerance but this year will surpass that level. Temperatures in Bangkok will not drop below 30 degrees Celsius, even at night until the end of April," said the expert . climate Maximiliano Herrera, in charge of some of Wikipedia's weather data pages, said. "This trend cannot be avoided. The whole region needs to prepare for intense sunlight throughout April and most of May." On April 3, Thailand entered the annual dry season, the capital Bangkok reached a temperature of about 42.8 degrees Celsius, forcing many people to stay indoors and turn on the air conditioner.

Along with these natural fluctuations, the world continues to experience many climate records, with extreme heat becoming common . Experts say that one of the most worrying features of today's heat wave raging in the region is its prolonged duration.

A group of experts from the Swiss climate research organization IQ Air said that the current heat wave is "a combination of many factors including human-caused climate change and the El Nino phenomenon" . According to IQ Air, this led to unprecedented high temperatures in the region.