It’s been a wild winter and spring across Asia with extremes for both cold and heat.

Thanks to it’s vast size, topography and position within the largest continent on earth linking tropics with arctic, China observed a particularly extreme ride so far in 2023. Firstly, the the far north, saw China’s first -50C since 1969 in January.

https://twitter.com/ThierryGooseBC/status/1616293472138579969

Then came the nations coldest temperature ever recorded.

https://twitter.com/ThierryGooseBC/status/1616986184030498816

A couple of months after the extreme cold came ‘mid-summer’ level heat which swept much of the country during March.

The unusually early heatwave produced China’s 2nd earliest 40C on record on March 22 and also observing a vast temperature difference between sub-arctic north and tropical south.

https://twitter.com/yangyubin1998/status/1638513413612765184

https://twitter.com/yangyubin1998/status/1638487422962110465

Even the Chinese capital, located in the northeast of the country even witnessed extreme heat by March standards.

https://twitter.com/ScottDuncanWX/status/1634510143260901377

Elsewhere within the Asian mid latitude, Japan and the Koreas too observed wild swings of cold and warm.

https://twitter.com/ThierryGooseBC/status/1618080655811940352

https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1618904271239499776

https://twitter.com/ThierryGooseBC/status/1625695108464283649

Mongolia

https://twitter.com/ThierryGooseBC/status/1617346402081964035

Then exceptional warmth for so early.

March

https://twitter.com/sayakasofiamori/status/1633397012841525248

April

https://twitter.com/sayakasofiamori/status/1649038696203812865

Mongolia

https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1647559567683858433

While for the most part, heat has dominated the weather pattern across much of China, the Koreas and Japan, the Indian sub-continent remained unusually cool until a week ago.

A strong phase 8 MJO has somewhat reversed the pattern for the sub-continent with strong heating extending south into southeast Asia.

While enhancing precipitation, upward motion and cool conditions over southeast Australia and the western Pacific, strong subsidence back west turned up the oven across the sub-continent and SE Asia and has fueled a record hot spell for hundreds of millions of people stretching from Pakistan to Laos.

While multiple countries have observed record heat in recent days, Thailand and Laos has reached new highs!

https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1647227215849967616

According to Arabia Weather, Thailand’s previous record was 44.6C at Mae Hong Son province in 2016.

With temperatures exceeding 40C in Bangkok, the Thai capital may have just witnessed it’s hottest day on record.

 

Nights too have been stifling, especially along the Gulf of Thailand coast.

https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1649038407782346754

ALL-TIME RECORD IN LAOS

https://twitter.com/ThierryGooseBC/status/1648852703454560256

https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1648311328287731714

Since the 2nd earliest 40C in China, the thermometer continues to rise.

https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1648266377311006722

 

Tags: asia heatwave, laos heat, mjo, southeast heat, thailand heat