Tuoi Tre News — El Nino is a natural climate phenomenon characterized by the abnormal warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. In 2015, as the Mekong Delta was heading into a harsh dry season, international weather agencies, including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, confirmed that El Nino had formed and repeatedly upgraded their forecasts for its intensity. The WMO at the time classified the event as one of the strongest since 1950, comparable to the historic episodes of 1982-1983 and 1997-1998. At the peak of the 2015-16 dry season, residents in former Ben Tre Province, now part of Vinh Long Province following a national administrative restructuring effective July 1, 2025, faced severe freshwater shortages and had to buy fresh water transported by barge from the upper reaches of the Tien River at VND150,000-200,000 ($5.70-7.60) per cubic meter. At present, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that the Nino 3.4 index, a measure used to monitor and assess El Nino, stood at +1.94 degrees Celsius in the week ending July 26, 2026, well above the +0.8 degrees Celsius threshold the agency uses as a reference for El Nino conditions. Read more >