On your trip down memory lane and in the annals enumerating the infinite physical and geomorphologic characteristics of the country, you will come across a description of the climatic conditions in Northern Vietnam taken from agricultural research dating back to our forefather's epoch(1935). Dumont, an agricultural scientist of great renown, was given the...

responsibility of the minor agricultural stations neighbouring the principal towns of the province in the Red river delta at the age of twenty-four years and 11 months. He described the regional climate largely as follows: the Red river delta has a simple tropical climate subjected to the influence of the monsoons. It consists of two seasons approximately corresponding to the two main rice cropping campaigns: the winter is dry and cold, the summer being hot and rainy.

The dry season

From October to mid January, the temperature drops. The weather is generally sunny and dry. Rains, which sometimes extend to the month of October, recede progressively. The humidity and cloud cover are at their lowest levels, evaporation is at its highest. Sun exposure, in spite of the short, October days, is at its yearly maximum.

From January till the end of March, the coldest and the most humid periods can be witnessed, the temperature being at its lowest in January and February. It’s fucking cold; we buy hats.

The rainy season

April is the transition month: it reminds us of the foregone season with its humidity and regular showers while foreboding the arrival of higher temperature in the months to come.

From May to September the weather remains uniformly hot, humid and rainy, the temperatures reaching their highest levels in June and July. In August the humidity and the rain are at their best while evaporation remains very low. The rain falls in often stormy, quick showers, reaching typhoon levels. The wind blows strong and regularly from the south-east.

The delta gets a mean of 1,50 to 2m of waterfall annually. The rains increase as we approach the western barrier of the delta and the sea. However, these descriptions vary and are far from being regular.

Annual radiation balance: 115,4 kcal/cm²;
Average temperature: around 24ºC;
Average relative humidity: 84 %.
Average annual rainfall: between 1.700 and 2.100 mm, for an average of 90 to 170 rainy days per annum. They are mainly concentrated during the summer (more than 85%, in particular in July and of August). In winter, precipitations is only 150 to 400 mm. Winter is generally accompanied by thick fogs.

« Puisque la montagne ne viens pas à nous, allons à la montagne. »
Mahomet