Hottest winter on record for Hong Kong, with average temperature of 19.1 degrees Celsius
- Last month was the second-warmest February on record, with an average temperature 3.3 degrees higher than normal
- Observatory attributes increase to ‘global warming and local urbanisation’
It’s official: Hong Kong has just been through its warmest winter on record.
The Observatory said the average temperature between December and February was 19.1 degrees Celsius, the highest since records began in 1884, and 0.7 degrees higher than normal.
“Under the influence of global warming and local urbanisation, there has been a very clear trend of Hong Kong’s winter temperatures increasing over a long term,” said Law Hiu-fai, a scientific officer at the Observatory.
“We expect to observe such a trend continuously. There may be more and more record-breaking occurrences of warm weather.”
The past winter also set two other records, for the highest average daily maximum temperature and the highest average daily minimum temperature.
The average daily maximum temperature was 21.4 degrees, 0.4 degrees higher than normal, while the average daily minimum temperature was 17.5 degrees, 1 degree higher than normal.