Restaurant staff battled to secure their roadside counter as a storm battered southern Thailand.

CCTV footage shows the scene as heavy rain and strong wind pounded the shop in Songkhla province on April 20.

It came as temperatures soared past 42 degrees Celsius last week during a heat wave across the Asia Pacific region. The warm weather is now giving way to extreme tropical storms.

Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian, described the weather as the 'worst April heatwave in Asian history'.

In Thai capital Bangkok, residents were warned not to go outside amid 42 degrees Celsius temperatures causing power outages due to surging demand from air con units and fans running.

The country's national weather service said the heat index - what the temperature feels like when combined with humidity - hit a record 54C (129F).