Typhoons hitting Hong Kong exceeded the expectations of weather officials last year and caused 11 days of cumulative typhoon warning signals.
The year ended with a warning that coming seasons would be more “unstable”, with big fluctuations in temperatures.
Nine tropical storms came within 800km of Hong Kong’s centre this year, although not all of them hit with the same intensity.
City University chair professor of atmospheric science Johnny Chan Chung-leung believed there could be more frequent extreme weather events and big fluctuations in temperatures as climatic changes made the atmosphere more unstable.
Experts believed warmer waters over the Pacific would provide more energy to typhoons and intensify their strength, though they would not necessarily occur more frequently.
A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience this year found that East Asia was buffeted by up to four times as many of the strongest storms a year compared to three decades ago.
