Hong Kong saw its hottest September on record last month, the observatory said Tuesday.
The monthly mean maximum temperature was 32.8 degrees Celsius, which is 2.3 degrees above the average between 1981—when records first began—and 2020.
Last September, the monthly mean temperature was 28.4 degrees, according to official data.
[HKO’s News]: The Weather of September 2021 – The hottest Septemberhttps://t.co/uRarl3iMwG pic.twitter.com/IGuj9K76sw
— Observatory HKO (@ObservatoryHK) October 5, 2021
There was also a record total of 15 “very hot days” this September, a weather warning designated by the observatory when the maximum temperature reaches 33 degrees.
Average temperatures in Hong Kong have been trending upwards, and extreme weather events become more frequent, in recent decades. Human-induced climate change, the observatory writes on its website, has become a “major challenge of our time.”
According to the August report, this summer—from June to August—was “much hotter than usual,” with the mean temperature of 29.1 degrees the sixth highest on record compared to the same period.
