With a north-central weather station reading 44.1 degrees Celsius (111.38 degrees Fahrenheit) late Saturday, Vietnam broke its previous record high temperature established in 2019.

For most of April, South Asia has been suffering from a heatwave, with neighboring nations also experiencing record-high temperatures.

Although the climate in Vietnam varies from north to south, the country as a whole is now entering its hottest summer months.

The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting reported that the record temperature of 44.1 degrees Celcius was recorded Saturday afternoon at the indoor Hoi Xuan station in north-central Thanh Hoa province.

The temperature exceeded the previous record for the nation, which stood at 43.4 degrees Celsius and was set on April 20, 2019, in Huong Khe District, central Ha Tinh Province.

"This is a worrying record in the context of climate change and global warming," climate change expert Nguyen Ngoc Huy said as quoted by AFP from the capital Hanoi. "I believe this record will be repeated many times," he said, adding that this confirms "that extreme climate models are being proven to be true."

According to scientists, global warming is making bad weather worse. A new assessment from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that "every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards".

See more: Climate change… is it a real threat?