The Year of the Pig got off to a warm start in Hong Kong, with citywide temperatures reaching up to 24.9 and 25.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Lau Fau Shan district in the New Territories saw a maximum temperature of 29.8 degrees on Thursday.
Districts such as Sha Tin, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Sham Shui Po and Kowloon city also recorded maximum temperatures of over 27 degrees. It was the hottest second and third day of the Lunar New Year since the Hong Kong Observatory started keeping records in 1884.
The weekend, and early next week, will see windier and slightly cooler weather, the Observatory said. The coast of Guangdong had been affected by a maritime airstream earlier this week, but it will be replaced by a fresh easterly airstream on Friday.
Temperatures will range between 19 and 24 degrees for the coming weekend. The Observatory expects temperatures to dip to a low of 18 degrees on Monday.
However, temperatures are then set to rise again: “With the monsoon moderating midweek next week, temperatures will rise gradually over Guangdong,” the Observatory said.
The days leading up to the Lunar New Year were also hot, with 25.3 and 25.5 degrees recorded on Sunday and Monday respectively.
The Observatory described the weather last month to be “much warmer than usual,” which it attributed to less cold air outbreaks from the north arriving at the south China coast.
January’s monthly mean temperature was 18.1 degrees, and its monthly mean minimum temperature was 16.4 degrees. Both figures were the third highest on record for January.
