Each year, the country averages approximately two million lightning strikes with higher frequency in mountainous regions, the midlands in the north and the plains in the south.
As of the morning of June 6, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) organized a workshop in Hai Phong, titled “Developing a plan to integrate natural disaster prevention knowledge into extracurricular activities at schools”.
Here, the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control introduced a handbook guiding methods for lightning prevention and control as well as knowledge and understanding about lightning to help people proactively grasp and improve abilities to encounter danger and survival skills for themselves.
A representative of the General Department of Meteorology and Hydrology under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment indicated that Vietnam made the latest lightning density maps for the country to measure and define thunderstorms and lightning activity across the entire territory of Vietnam. This map was created by scientists from the Institute of Geophysics.
Experts said that Vietnam is located in both a tropical and a temperate zone characterized by strong monsoons, intense and frequent lightning and thunderstorm activities across 63 provinces and cities.
The Institute of Geophysics also informed that Vietnam is centered at the eye of the Asian storm with intense lightning activity.
Apart from the beneficial aspect of bringing rain and providing nitrogen for the ecosystem, lightning can also cause significant dangers to human life and property damage.
Scientists from the Institute of Geophysics have collected data to make the lightning map of the country since 2022 through the formation of a network measuring electrical discharges on the ground at eight lightning detection stations in the localities of Thai Nguyen, Bac Lieu, Binh Thuan, Phu Yen, Quang Tri, Moc Chau, Phu Thuy and Nghia Do (Hanoi).
According to Head of the Weather Radar Department at the National Meteorological and Hydrological Network Center under the General Department of Meteorology and Hydrology Nguyen Duc Phuong, Vietnam's lightning detection system has been expanded to a total of number of 18 stations and is connected to the international lightning detection system.
