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Starting thread here on local weather becoming weirder as the world warms. Might be just quirks rather than events definitely attributable to warming, but let's see.
Already, I believe, recent years have been unusually warm here too (global warming isn't just happening out there somewhere). Hong Kong Observatory has posted info on October 2006, and as you've surely realised if you were here this month and in previous autumns, it proved unusual. Equal highest average daily minimum and maximum average temperatures (equalling 1983). 78% drier than average October.
Also – reflecting the prevailing smog – more than four times the number of hours with "reduced visibility" (at Chek Lap Kok): a whopping 546 hours, compared to 124 hours in normal year (between 1997 and 2005). Surely linked to this: even tho hours of sunshine much as normal, the average daily solar radiation was over 10% lower than normal. (So much for the Action Blue Sky campaign to date!: over 3 months in, and skies persistently whitish.)
I’ve been here nigh on 20 years. Remember when I first arrived, a friend criticised a tv drama (Noble House), which had dowpours leading to apartment block collapse – in November. He said that don’t get such rains in November. Well, today we’ve had rains like early summer: over 100mm in some places; still warm (close to midnight; windows open, yet still in shorts and t-shirts: I’m yet to wear a jumper this autumn). Still thunderstorms around, more rain forecast for tomorrow. Not a tropical storm – I’ve known one such storm bring much rain early one November. And, quite unlike regular November cold fronts, which move through fast, with somewhat chilly, dry air soon following. Just checking Weather Underground forum, and the weather buffs there having some discussion about the storms today – inc noting that we’ve jsut had the first ever amber rainstorm in November.
It was indeed a remarkably warm November – the hottest on record.
Quote:November 2006 was unseasonably warm. The monthly mean temperature of 23.3 degrees reached an all-time high.says the Hong Kong Observatory.
The mean air temperature of 23.3C was 1.9C above normal.Rainfall was high too, at 99.6mm – 64.5mm above normal. Much of this was on one day:
Quote:A broad band of rain and thunderstorms affected southern China on 21 November. Locally, the weather was overcast with heavy rain and squally thunderstorms. More than 100 millimetres of rainfall was recorded at Wu Kau Tang and Ma On Shan on that day.(isn’t a note re whether this was a remarkably rainy day for November)
Sitting in shorts n t-shirt as I write this, at nearly 10.30pm on a February evening (a window open too; about unthinkable when I first arrived here 20 years ago), not surprising to read this has been Hong Kong’s warmest Chinese New Year on record:
Quote:Hong Kong has enjoyed its warmest Lunar New Year on record with temperatures on the first day of the Year of the Pig climbing above 25 degrees Celsius, weathermen said Monday.The temperature on Sunday afternoon in the territory of 6.8 million hit 25.3 degrees Celsius, breaking the previous record of 24.6 degrees Celsius set in 1982, the Hong Kong Observatory said.
… global warming has seen winter temperatures climb in recent years along with the arrival of a number of species of migratory birds which normally spend winter further south.If you thought July seemed unusually hot and dry, with day after day of heat, sun, and – often – clear blue skies with just a few fluffy white clouds (great to look at; hot to be out in), you were right.
From HK Obs:Quote:Under the prolonged dominance of the sub-tropical ridge of high pressure, July 2007 was much drier and warmer than usual. The monthly rainfall of 76.9 millimetres, less than one fourth of the normal figure of 323.5 millimetres, was the lowest on record for July. With abundant sunshine and meager rainfall, the monthly mean temperature mounted to 29.6 degrees, the second highest for July. The accumulated rainfall since the beginning of the year was 1044.9 millimetres, about 21 percent below the normal figure of 1316.0 millimetres for the same period.Item in today’s S China Morning Post says there are more midges and blackflies in Hong Kong, especially the New Territories – and because of their itchy bites they have become a real nuisance in some areas (also says blackflies transmit filarial worms, which can cause blindness – something I’ve never heard of but seems very horrible!)
I haven’t noticed more around my place on Cheung Chau, but from experience know these are unpleasant: may look like a full stop on my skin, but bit stings like mosquito. I came to dub them “micro-biters”; believe that in US they’re known as “no see-ums”.
Higher temperatures plus increased rains thought to be leading them to breed more readily.
From HK Observatory:
Quote:August 2009 was hotter and drier than usual. The mean temperature was 29.4 degrees, 1.0 degrees above the normal of 28.4 degrees. There were 14 very hot days, making it the hottest August since 1963. The mean minimum temperature of 27.7 degrees was the highest for August since record began.Just had another hot month (indeed, towards the end, temp reached over 38C at Waglan); comes during a dry year – without water supplies from China, we'd likely have major problems with water in Hong Kong.
From HK Observatory:
Quote:Under the prolonged dominance of the sub-tropical ridge, Hong Kong experienced one of the hottest August since records began in 1884. The monthly mean temperature soared to 29.5 degrees, equaling the record set in 1990 and 1998 and was 1.1 degrees above normal. The month was sunnier than usual. The monthly total duration of bright sunshine was 242.0 hours, 52.3 hours higher than normal. The month was also dry with a total rainfall of 157.6 millimetres, only 35 percent of the normal figure and the accumulated rainfall since 1 January of 1092.3 millimetres suffered a deficit of 42 percent compared to the normal figure of 1873.7 millimetres for the same period.
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