Viet Nam's National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting (NCHF) has issued an alert on a fast-moving cold front causing strong winds in many parts of Viet Nam’s territory waters off locales from the northern province of Quang Ninh to the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau.

From Thursday into Sunday, 21 February, Da Nang could see cloudy, some light scattered shower in some of its parts. The mercury will hover at 18– 26 degrees Celsius over the next three days.

The cold spell, which arrived in the mountainous northern provinces early Wednesday morning before travelling southwards, is also bringing about northwest breezes of levels 3-4 offshore and level 3 in inland areas.

Also, there is the possibility of level 6-7 gale winds, rough seas and sea waves from 5 – 7 m high in waters off central regional areas from Quang Binh to Quang Ngai, including Da Nang.

Catastrophe alerts of level two have been issued for rough sea caused by strong winds of up to level 8 in the East Sea.

Waters off Viet Nam's Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago are also suffering strong northeast winds at levels 6-7, even with a gust of level 8, sea waves from 2 - 4m high.

All Vietnamese fishing boats operating at sea have been well informed of the aforementioned harsh weather conditions to avoid any unexpected incidents at sea.

In Central Viet Nam, a vast stretch from Quang Binh to Thua Thien-Hue provinces is suffering in a chill weather with the mercury plummeting considerably to as low as 17– 10 degrees Celsius, even colder at 15– 17 degrees Celsius in their mountainous locations.

In addition, localities from Da Nang to Quang Ngai are bracing for a bit higher mercury which is hovering at the lowest as 18 -20 degrees Celsius, and even colder at 16– 18 degrees Celsius in their high-altitude spots.

From Thursday into Sunday, 21 February, Da Nang is expected to see cloudy, some light scattered shower in some of its parts. The mercury will hover at 18– 26 degrees Celsius over the next three days.

From next Monday, 22 February, Da Nang could see cloudy, rainless days, and interestingly, some much-hailed sunlight in the daytime, causing the temperature to increase a little bit.

As for ultraviolet (UV) index, it reached 7.9 in Da Nang at noon on Wednesday, and will still remain at around 7 over the next few days.

The UV index in HCM City and other southern localities are at a 'very high' level. The highest UV level in HCM City on Wednesday was 9.5 and is expected to reach 10 from 18 to 20 February.

In other southern localities such as Can Tho City and Ca Mau Province, the UV index is forecast to be at nine to 10 between 17 and 29 February.

According to the NCHF, the UV index at 2.5-5.4 is considered moderate, while the 5.5-7.4 range is high and 7.5-10.4 is very high.

A UV reading at the very high level can penetrate clouds and glass windows, while causing sunburn after 25 minutes of exposure.

By HOANG HIEP – Translated by A.T