Hong Kong Observatory announces 2018 was city’s third-hottest year in recorded history
- An exceptionally warm spring pushed mean temperatures beyond usual levels
- Observatory recorded 36 ‘very hot days’ – with temperatures of 33 degrees Celsius or warmer, the third-highest number on record
Last year was Hong Kong’s third-warmest year, with the hottest May since records began, the Observatory said on Tuesday.
The Observatory said the city’s warm weather in 2018 was part of a global phenomenon, with the year on course to be the world’s fourth-warmest recorded year.
Locally, the annual mean temperature for 2018 was 23.9 degrees Celsius, 0.6 degrees above the mean between 1981 and 2010. It was the third-warmest since records began in 1884.
In May, the monthly mean temperature was 28.3 degrees, a record high for that month.
The year’s highest temperature recorded at the Observatory’s headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui was 35.4 degrees on May 30, the 11th-highest on record.
“Mainly attributing to the exceptionally warm spring, the weather in Hong Kong was warmer than usual in 2018,” the Observatory said.
