The mercury has soared to a sweltering 34 degrees celsius in parts of Hong Kong today and, we’re sorry to say, there appears little relief in sight.
The Observatory is predicting maximum temperatures of 33 degrees — with between 60 and 90 percent humidity — for the rest of the week.
Only a slight dip in the mercury is expected on the weekend. Great.
Currently, a hot weather warning is in place. As of 1pm, the temperature for the city was hovering around the low to mid-30s.
It hit 34 degrees in Sha Tin, Tseung Kwan O, Chek Lap Kok and Tai Mei Tuk.
As always, those conscientiousness folks at the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) are warning residents to take care.
Those engaged in outdoor activities, they warn, are particularly susceptible to heatstroke over the coming days.
“The public should carry and drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration while engaging in outdoor activities,” a spokesman for the CHP said.
“Those engaged in strenuous outdoor activities should avoid beverages containing caffeine, such as coffee and tea, as well as alcohol, as they speed up water loss through the urinary system.”
Full list of the CHP’s advised precautions
According to the weather service, 2018 is on track to be one of the hottest and driest on record.
A heatwave in May brought 15 consecutive days of weather in the low to mid-30s. In a recent blog on the site, forecasters compared this year to 1963, when a prolonged drought hit the city and caused its driest year on record.
In that year, both measurements from Hong Kong and from a weather in Heyuan city in China’s Guangdong province — which are both in a similar climate zone — recorded massive deficit in rainfall in the first five months of the year.
However this year, while Hong Kong recorded its second lowest rainfall from January to May — 175mm — the impact on Heyuan has not been as bad, a reflection of the “high spatial variability in rainfall distribution”.
The authors stated it was too early to reach a conclusion.
“Since about 80 percent of the annual rainfall of Hong Kong is recorded between May and September, whether 2018 will be as dry as 1963 of course very much depends on the local rainfall in the long summer yet to come.”
