Improving hydrometeorological forecasting capacity, proactively responding to extreme weather in Nghe An

Extreme weather events appear

Since the beginning of the year, Vietnam in general and Nghe An province in particular have been continuously suffering from extreme weather phenomena such as heavy rain, strong storms, flash floods, and unusual thunderstorms. Notably, the flood from June 10-14 caused by storm No. 1 (Wutip) - the first storm to appear in the East Sea in June after more than 40 years - caused exceptionally heavy rain in the Central Central region, with many places recording 800-1,200mm of rain in 3 days.

In July 2025, an unusual storm in Ha Long overturned a tourist boat, killing 39 people. Also in July, the impact of storm Wipha caused severe flooding in Nghe An. Most recently, a sudden flash flood on the night of July 31 and early morning of August 1 in Dien Bien also killed 10 people, injured 7 people, and severely damaged hundreds of houses...

The flood at the end of July 2025 caused heavy damage to Nghe An province with 4 deaths, many houses damaged and swept away, thousands of hectares of crops buried, countless structures broken and damaged... Total damage is estimated at over 3,500 billion VND. This is considered a historic flood in Nghe An in the past decades.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Tien - Director of Nghe An Province Hydrometeorological Station, said: There are many causes of this flood. First of all, we must mention the excessive rainfall due to the influence of storm No. 3, many areas in Nghe An province suffered from prolonged heavy rain with total rainfall ranging from 150 to 250 mm, in some places exceeding 300 mm.

Some measuring points such as Quy Chau 335 mm, Muong Xen 260 mm, Tuong Duong 237 mm, Con Cuong 235 mm...

Besides heavy rain, another factor that has a significant impact is the huge amount of water from Laos - where the Nam Mo and Nam Non rivers flow upstream. The entire volume of water overflowing the Truong Son range, combined with heavy rain in the country, caused the Ban Ve hydropower plant to record a flow exceeding 12,000m³/second - an extremely rare number in the monitoring data series for many years. Hydropower plants are forced to regulate water, reduce floods, and minimize damage to downstream areas.

The leader of Nghe An Province's Hydrometeorological Station also emphasized that this extreme weather phenomenon is a clear demonstration of the impact of climate change in recent years. Instead of sporadic rains as before, now the rains often pour in a short period of time, with great intensity, causing rapid and strong floods. Therefore, localities need to proactively update disaster response scenarios in the direction of adapting to climate change, instead of relying only on traditional experience.

From a practical perspective in the area, Mr. Nguyen Truong Thanh - Head of the Irrigation Sub-Department of Nghe An province, commented that this flood has a level of destruction far exceeding the historical floods that occurred in the old Ky Son district (in 2022) and the old Quy Chau district (in 2023).

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During many years of working in natural disaster prevention and control, we have never witnessed a flood with such destructive power, large scale and serious consequences as this time. After the flood receded, the recovery work was even more difficult, because the transport infrastructure was cut off, buried by rocks and soil, resources were limited, while people were in dire need of timely support.

Mr. Nguyen Truong Thanh - Head of Irrigation Sub-Department of Nghe An province

According to Mr. Thanh, the current flood prevention plan must take into account the possibility of extreme, unusual weather situations that exceed historical thresholds. It is necessary to review the entire warning system, evacuation, and relocation of residents in high-risk areas; at the same time, invest in upgrading flood drainage infrastructure, consolidating irrigation works, dams, and roads to ensure safety against unexpected floods.

In addition, propaganda work to raise people's awareness of climate change and natural disaster prevention and control needs to be carried out more widely and regularly. Each household, especially in mountainous areas, along rivers and streams, needs to be equipped with emergency response skills and know how to protect themselves and their property when natural disasters occur.

Building a lifestyle that adapts to natural disasters, considering it an inevitable part of the current living environment, will help people not be passive and surprised by increasingly unpredictable weather changes.

Improve forecast quality

Faced with increasingly extreme weather events, the need to improve the quality of meteorological and hydrological forecasts has become more urgent than ever. According to Mr. Nguyen Danh Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Nghe An, the meteorological sector needs a more effective mechanism for coordination and sharing of regional data. Forecasts not only need to be accurate but also need to be fast and timely, especially in the context of the "golden response" time for people being increasingly shortened due to heavy rains and rapid floods. In addition, investing in more modern equipment and expanding the monitoring system and weather radar in mountainous and border areas is also a task that cannot be delayed.

In addition, it is necessary to change the approach in conveying weather information to the community. Warnings need to be presented in an easy-to-understand, intuitive way, linked to specific actions that people need to take to avoid subjectivity or misunderstanding the level of danger. At the same time, training to improve the capacity of forecasters and experts in analyzing meteorological and hydrological data must also be given more attention...

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Tien - Director of Nghe An Province Hydrometeorological Station, said: Currently, the unit is using data from 9 meteorological stations, 11 hydrological stations, 1 Vinh weather radar station, 1 Vinh radio reconnaissance station, 45 automatic rain gauges to forecast for Nghe An province (including remote areas).

Basically, the above hydrometeorological station network system has met the current forecasting needs well. The upstream of Ban Ve hydropower reservoir has a fairly good automatic rain gauge network for forecasting. However, to improve the forecasting accuracy, in the coming time, it is necessary to add more meteorological and hydrological stations, especially hydrological stations along the river (on the Lao side) to improve the quality of water volume forecasting. In addition, it is necessary to build hydrometeorological stations in the Nam Mo hydropower basin in Lao territory. Increase the number of automatic rain gauges in remote areas, mountainous communes in the West of Nghe An.

Immediately after this flood, the Nghe An Provincial Hydrometeorological Station collected complete hydrometeorological data, buffer surface data, data at reservoirs (especially Ban Ve and Nam Mo reservoirs), and flooded areas to calibrate parameters to improve the quality of the bulletins. Submit to the authorities for additional support and equipping more monitoring equipment in vulnerable areas. In addition, the unit will have solutions to improve the qualifications of forecasters, observers, and technicians; research and apply advanced forecasting models to operational forecasting; upgrade equipment and computer systems to analyze and quickly process the increasing volume of data...