The things we'll did to cool down this summer...The Hong Kong Observatory has revealed that last month was one of the hottest Septembers in the city since records began in the 1880s.
The monthly average temperature for the month was 29.0 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees above the normal 27.7 degrees, making the month one of the top four hottest Septembers since the city’s forecasters started to document the data in 1884.
The same monthly mean temperatures were also recorded in 2014, 2008 and 1969.
The Observatory figures showed the hottest days in the month were between September 25 and 29, when the city was experiencing an anticyclone, resulting in generally fine and hot weather.
“Very hot” weather warnings were issued on September 12, 13, 15, 18 and 26, with the one on September 26 lasting for more than three and a half days.
And there were 28 days in which the absolute daily maximum temperatures at the headquarters were higher than 30 degrees, compared with 19 days and 25 days in September last year and 2015 respectively.
With abundant sunshine, temperatures at the Observatory’s headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui soared to a maximum of 34.1 degrees on the afternoon of September 28, the highest of the month.
It was also drier than usual, with a total rainfall of 192.4 millimetres, about 59 per cent of the normal 327.6 millimetres.
The total bright sunshine duration for the month was 187.1 hours, 14.8 hours above normal.
The “normal”values are an average of figures taken from 1981 to 2010.