Vietnam Weather

A rough guide on the general patterns of the weather in Vietnam. Do not take this as a bible. With all the global warming, if anyone says he can give you a definitive weather forecast, he is pulling a fast one.

Farmers in Vietnam are losing their crops as they can no longer rely on their years of experience to predict the weather. My landlord is an 80 years old lady who has lived in Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, all her life. Over the last 3 years, she has been commenting that she has never seen the weather being so bad- too hot during the dry season and so much rain during the wet ones.

 

General
In very general terms, it is fair to say that Vietnam on a whole has two main seasons: a dry season from November to May, and rainy season from June to October.

 

Northern Vietnam
October and November are the best months being comfortable and dry. December to February is cold with the day averaging 20 degrees and the night falling to 5 degrees. March to May is the hot and dry season with daytime temperature averaging 34 degrees. June to September is the raining season with occasional thunderstorms that can be quite bad.

 

Central Vietnam
Temperatures are high all year round. March to July is the dry and hot season and August to November is the raining season. Central Vietnam gets hit the worst when it comes to this time of the year, particularly during October and November. This is when typhoons and the monsoon rain can flood an entire village and even town. Watch the Hoi An Flood video.

 

Southern Vietnam
Weather in southern Vietnam is easier to ‘catch’- hot and dry from January to May and the raining season starts from June to about November. December is always the best month being dry and a little cooler than the 35 degrees average during the hot season. Fits nicely into the Christmas and year end mood

 

2 weather forecast sites to recommend. Again, note the opening paragraphs about forecasting weather for Vietnam (or the world in fact).

1) Accuweather.com
Came across Accuweather when I owned my 1st Mac. Apple uses this company on their default weather outlook widget. So if it’s good for Steve Jobs, it’s good for us all :-) I find Accuweather to be about 70% accurate on their outlook for Saigon’s weather.

2) Vietnam National Weather Station
I find them to be 75% accurate on Saigon’s weather outlook. But there’s a big problem with this site- sometimes it loads VERY slow and sometimes not at all.

 

Parting note- I want to encourage you to consider my idea: For me, when I’m traveling to see a country, I never let the weather bother me too much, be it the unbearable heat or the bitter winter. I suggest you adopt this mentality too.

 

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