Hong Kong expecting a warmer, wetter winter with El Niño

This winter is expected to be warmer and wetter than usual as a result of El Niño, the climate phenomenon associated with warming in the central Pacific Ocean.

This prediction by the Observatory came as the city continued to break or approach weather records, including the most thunderstorm warnings, under the influence of climate change.

Director Shun Chi-ming said forecasters were more confident in their prediction of a warmer winter than a wetter one because there were still uncertainties about the emergence and impact of El Niño.

"The last 12 El Niño records show there were seven warmer and five colder winters but the rainfall had greater variations of up to several hundred millilitres," he said.

He said they could not tell exactly how much warmer this winter would be than average, nor when the warmer weather would occur, adding that a warmer winter did not mean there would be no cold days.

The average winter temperature in Hong Kong is about 17 degrees Celsius.