Farmer Nguyen Thi Lan told AFP that temperatures in the central city of Danang were getting increasingly hot, forcing workers to start working earlier than ever.
“We had to finish before 10:00 a.m. to avoid the heat,” she said.
Lan said forecasters said the temperature was expected to rise to nearly 40 degrees Celsius.
“But by lunchtime, I think it was too hot.”
Vietnam’s weather varies from north to south, but the entire country is now entering the hottest summer months.
The record temperature was measured indoors at Hoi Xuan station in northern Thanh Hoa province. It reached a previous high of 43.4 °C recorded in April 2019 in Huang Khe district of central Ha Tinh province.
“This is a worrying record in terms 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 proving true.”
Across the country, weather experts and officials warned people to stay indoors during the hottest parts of the day.