Vietnam is likely to hit by prolonged heat waves next year. (Photo: VNA)

Sharing the assessment during the centre’s annual meeting to review 2024 operations and set out tasks for 2025 held on December 18, Khiem added that the country may also encounter an increase in the frequency and intensity of localised heavy rains, flash floods, landslides, typhoons, and storms.

Reflecting on 2024, he noted that the year saw a complex and extreme pattern of natural disasters, including droughts, saltwater intrusion, heatwaves, cold spells, widespread heavy rainfall, flooding, flash floods, and landslides. Notably, Super Typhoon Yagi caused significant damage to both lives and property.

In response to the escalating impacts of climate change, Hoang Duc Cuong, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources’s Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration (VMHA) – which runs the centre, urged it to modernise operation methods with a focus on earlier, more detailed, and reliable forecasting that integrates digital and visual technologies.

Dang Thi Huong, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s department of dike management and disaster prevention, stressed the need for closer collaboration between the centre and the department next year to enhance the quality of disaster forecasting and warnings. She said particular attention should be given to flash floods, landslides, and quantitative rainfall forecasts, as well as predictions to support the management of reservoirs and inter-reservoir systems.

As heard at the event, in 2024, the centre monitored and forecast nine typhoons and one tropical depression,18 cold spells, 19 heatwaves, 21 widespread heavy rain events, 15 flood events, and 39 flash floods and landslides. It tracked water levels and river flows nationwide, saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, and tidal surges, strong winds, large waves, and sea level rise along coastal areas. Shortcomings were also reported, including the centre’s inability to predict super typhoon-force winds on land (an unprecedented phenomenon in Vietnam's history) and to provide detailed flash flood and landslide warnings for villages or hamlets involved. Its data storage and computational systems faced frequent disruptions due to delayed upgrades and maintenance./.