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Julia Hollingsworth

If you felt like it was abnormally hot and wet in Hong Kong last month, you were right: the city sweltered through its hottest day on record and experienced 13 per cent more rain than usual thanks in part to two typhoons, according to the local forecaster.
The Hong Kong Observatory recorded the hottest temperature at its Tsim Sha Tsui headquarters since records began in 1880, with the mercury tipping 36.6 degrees Celsius on August 22.
The mean daily temperature was 29.3 degrees – 0.7 degrees above average – making it the seventh warmest August on record, according to the Observatory.
The two tropical cyclones Hato and Pakhar, which struck towards the end of the month and prompted typhoon warnings, were partly to blame for the atypically hot and wet weather, Observatory scientific officer Chan Yan-chun said.

The hot weather was caused by subsidence – or downward air pressure – just before typhoons Hato and Pakhar hit the city, Chan said.
That meant Hong Kong experienced hot, hazy weather with light winds and plenty of sunshine just before a typhoon hit.




Meanwhile, the city was swamped with 13 per cent more rainfall than in a typical August, experiencing 489.1mm of total rainfall across the month. For the year up to August, the city has experienced 18 per cent more rainfall than usual.
Hato coincided with a high tide, leading to flooding in parts of the city on August 23. In Quarry Bay, the water level rose to 3.57 metres, the second highest since the record-breaking 3.96 metre water levels during Super Typhoon Wanda in 1962.

The rainfall had been caused by the two cyclones, combined with a southwest monsoon that prompted a red rainstorm warning, Chan said.
Well this was more rain than usual, the scientific officer said, 13 per cent more rainfall was not unheard of and was “not a very rare case”.


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Hong Kong weather

It’s official: Hong Kong sweltered through record-breaking summer

Someone hecking the wind speed at Victoria Harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui as Typhoon Pakhar nears Hong Kong. Photo: Felix Wong

Firefighters and police were called to Ma Pui Tsuen in the Lei Yue Mun waterfront at about 10am when a family of three - two men and one woman - were trapped in a stone house which was surrounded by floodwater. under Typhoon Hato. Typhoon No.10. 23AUG17 SCMP/ Sam Tsang

epa06165795 Pedestrians wear raincoats as they cross Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, China, 27 August 2017. Tropical storm Pakhar brought heavy rains and winds as it passed within 150 km southwest of Hong Kong as the region is still reeling from the effects of Typhoon Hato. EPA/JEROME FAVRE

News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Temperature hit high of 36.6 degrees Celsius on August 22; rainfall was 13 per cent more than average for time of year


Typhoon Hato