Hong Kong weather: temperatures to drop below 9 degrees Celsius after mild Christmas Day
- Saturday highs of 21 degrees likely to plunge to single digits early next week
- Monsoon effects, upper-air disturbance bringing the colder spell to Hong Kong
Hongkongers looking forward to a relatively warm Christmas Day should brace for much colder weather over the rest of the holiday season, with temperatures dipping to nine degrees Celsius (48.2 degrees Fahrenheit) or below on Monday.
The Hong Kong Observatory forecast temperatures of between 17 and 21 degrees on Saturday, as well as cloudy conditions and a low chance of any significant rainfall.
But it will become appreciably colder and rather windy later in the weekend as an intense monsoon reaches the Guangdong coast, while an upper-air disturbance – created by significant changes to airflow direction high in the atmosphere – is set to bring clouds and rain to the region.
“Under the effects of the monsoon, the temperature in urban areas will drop to 11 degrees Celsius on Sunday ... dropping further to nine degrees Celsius or lower on Monday. Temperatures in the New Territories and on high ground will be a few more degrees lower,” said Cheung Ping, a senior scientific officer at the Observatory.
But forecasters added it would remain cool in the early and late hours, with temperature differences between day and night relatively large.