South-east Asian country has a monsoon climate, and 15% of land is less than five metres above sea level
Long and narrow, stretching from 9 to 23 degrees north of the equator, Vietnam is situated totally within the tropics. Like many countries in south-east Asia, it has a monsoon climate, with two distinct seasons, dominated by moist southerly winds in late spring and summer, and drier northerly ones in autumn and winter.
These, in turn, lead to very different weather patterns between the two main seasons. The summer monsoon is characterised by heavy rain, with Hanoi, the capital in the north, and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in the south experiencing downpours. These are also sometimes associated with typhoons, from June to November. Temperatures vary far more in the north: in Hanoi, the winter nights can be quite cool; while in the south, there is far less variation, with daily maxima in the low-to-mid 30s and night-time minima in the low 20s C.