After punishing heat waves struck large parts of the continent in April, temperatures spiked again in late May, normally the start of the cooler monsoon season.

Seasonal highs were registered in China, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, and experts warned that there was more to come.

"We can't say that these are events that we need to get used to, and adapt to, and mitigate against, because they are only going to get worse as climate change progresses," said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist with the University of New South Wales in Australia.

The heat wave in Vietnam, expected to last well into June, has already forced authorities to turn off street lights and ration electricity as air conditioning demand threatens to overwhelm the power grid.

The country recorded its highest temperature ever on May 6, at 44.1 degrees Celsius in Thanh Hoa province, about 150 kilometers south of Hanoi. Another province came close to the record on Wednesday, hitting 43.3 degrees.

Vietnam's national weather forecaster warned on Thursday of residential fire risks due to high power consumption. With temperatures set to range from 35 degrees and 39 degrees in the coming two days, it also warned of the risks of dehydration, exhaustion and heat strokes.

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