Hong Kong Observatory says city’s residents should expect another sweltering summer
- Forecasters predict this year could be among hottest on record
- Effects of global warming could also see between five and eight typhoons hit city
Meteorologists have predicted this summer could be among the hottest on record in Hong Kong, for the third year running.
On Tuesday, the Observatory’s director, Dr Cheng Cho-ming, said the annual mean temperature this year would rise above normal, with a strong chance of 2021 reaching the top 10 hottest years since records began in 1884.
Two years ago was the hottest on record, when the city sweltered under an annual mean temperature of 24.5 degrees Celsius (76.1 degrees Fahrenheit). The following year the mean was 0.1 degrees lower, making 2020 the second hottest on record. Mean temperatures between June and August that year hit a high of 29.6 degrees.
“It’s worrying because it really indicates that global warming is here,” he said. “We can’t say that in the next one to two years whether we will break the record, but at least we are seeing that the global warming effect will be there.”
There was also a record high 50 “hot nights” in 2020, when daily minimum temperatures reached 28 degrees or higher. The year also logged a new high of 47 “very hot days”, with daily maximum temperatures reaching 33 degrees or above.