Warm New Year sunshine in Hong Kong to give way to plunging temperatures
Under 10 per cent chance mercury could go as low as 7 degrees Celsius early next week as band of cloud blankets region
Hong Kong’s sunny New Year is set to give way to a rainy weekend and plunging temperatures, with an outside chance the mercury could plunge to 7 degrees Celsius by early next week.
The city welcomed in 2018 with mild weather and some sunshine on Monday. Temperatures hovered between 16 and 20 degrees and the good weather was expected to stretch through to Wednesday.
But the latest nine-day forecast by the Hong Kong Observatory showed an easterly airstream would affect the coast of southern China in the next few days.
Temperatures will start to drop from Wednesday, as a broad band of cloud covers the coast and the northern part of the South China Sea, bringing rain to the region.
The cold will set in further next Monday with “temperatures falling appreciably” to a minimum of 13 degrees as a surging winter monsoon reaches southern China.
Temperatures will range between 11 and 14 degrees, with a 30 per cent chance of falling even lower by next Tuesday. The chance of hitting just 7 degrees is less than 10 per cent, according to weather charts.
The mercury will then start to climb again from next Wednesday, with a maximum temperature of 16 degrees, but it will remain “cold in the morning”.
