Hong Kong logs one of 6th warmest years since records began, with second-highest number of hot nights and days in 2022
- Annual average temperature in 2022 was 23.9 degrees Celsius, according to city’s weather forecaster
- Hottest day last year was July 24, when the temperature soared to 36.1 degrees
Hong Kong last year experienced one of its sixth warmest years and the second-highest number of hot nights and days since records began, according to the city’s weather forecaster.
The Observatory on Monday said the annual average temperature last year was 23.9 degrees Celsius, the same as the figure recorded in 2002, 2017 and 2018.
“With a record-breaking hot July and the warmest autumn from September to November, the weather was warmer than usual in 2022 … and among the sixth warmest since records began in 1884,” the Observatory said.
The forecaster added that last year’s annual average temperature was 0.4 degrees above the climatological normal, a figure calculated using data spanning from 1991 to 2020.
The city also logged an annual average maximum temperature of 26.7 degrees last year, making it the fifth highest on record, while the annual average minimum temperature of 22 degrees was one of the seventh highest.
Hong Kong in 2022 had 52 hot nights, with nighttime temperatures reaching 28 degrees or above, including a record-breaking streak of 21 hot nights for three weeks in July. The Observatory also logged 52 hot days last year, with daytime temperatures reaching 33 degrees or above.
The number of hot nights and days recorded last year marked the second-highest on record after 2021.
Last July was the city’s hottest month on record, with 25 hot nights and 21 hot days. The hottest day of 2022 was July 24, when the forecaster recorded a temperature of 36.1 degrees, one of the third highest on record, at its headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Hong Kong also logged the warmest autumn since records began, with an average temperature of 26.4 degrees between September and November. It also recorded an average maximum temperature of 29.2 degrees over the same period.
February 21 was the coldest day last year, with the forecaster’s headquarters recording a temperature of 7.5 degrees. Thirteen cold days were recorded in total where the daily minimum temperature reached 12 degrees or lower.
The city’s annual rainfall last year was 2,205mm, about 9 per cent below the normal of 2,431mm, a figure calculated using data spanning from 1991 to 2020.
The World Meteorological Organization last November preliminarily assessed that 2022 was likely to be the fifth or sixth warmest year globally, with an estimated global mean temperature of about 1.15 degrees above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.
