How climate change could transform tourism – and the best ways to stop it ruining your holiday

While the weather has always been fickle, there are indications of increasing weirdness as climate change progresses.

In Hong Kong, this past November did not bring the clear, sunny days we would expect: instead it was much gloomier than usual, and warmer, with only feeble northeast monsoons. Earlier in the year, an exceptionally hot and dry May was followed by an August when it seemed the summer monsoon rains belatedly arrived, and a pummelling by Severe Typhoon Mangkhut.

This quirkiness is not limited to Hong Kong, with news desks around the world reporting on drought, floods, the succession of typhoons that affected Japan this summer, the massive fires in California, and an Australian heatwave so severe it killed thousands of fruit bats in November.

Even when taking short trips overseas, I've experienced some odd weather, including downpours when the rainy season should have finished in west Java and on Bali, and an unusual drought in east Indonesia that had made the fringes of a rainforest so dry that fire broke out by the bungalow we stayed in.

All of which poses the question: as it gets harder to judge what weather to expect when planning holidays, should we still follow the traditional recommendations, such as favouring dry seasons and avoiding usually rainy periods?