Green groups say the weather data is evidence of the city's worsening air pollution
Hong Kong's skies have been obscured by haze or smog for a record number of hours in 2006 - totalling about a third of the year, weather figures indicate.
The year is also set to be one of the hottest and greyest years on record, unless extraordinary temperatures and hours of sunshine are recorded over the next week.
Environmental groups have seized on the weather figures as further evidence of worsening air pollution in Hong Kong and are calling for stricter and more binding controls on emissions.
But the government says most air pollution measures are improving and its existing and planned emission reduction actions - including an emissions agreement with Guangdong - will see air quality improve further. Figures also showed the number of days the air-pollution index was at a high level this year was the same as last year.
In the first 11 months of the year alone, visibility at the airport was reduced to less than 8km for 2,617 hours, exceeding the annual total for last year by 7.3 per cent and up by 172 per cent since 1997, Hong Kong Observatory figures show.
The average temperature for the year up to December 20 is 23.5 degrees Celsius, which would make this year tie as the eighth hottest on record since 1885. There were only 1,698 hours of bright sunshine over the same period.