It has been the wettest January Hong Kong has seen since records began 132 years ago, the Hong Kong Observatory has announced.
As of Friday afternoon, over 260mm of rainfall had been recorded, the Observatory said, making this month the wettest January since 1884. Previously, the wettest on record was January 1887, when 214.3mm of rain fell.
“The January rain is caused by upper air disturbances. The lower atmosphere and southwesterly winds over northern part of the South China Sea is bringing more moisture to the city,” Ho Chun-kit, Scientific Officer at Hong Kong Observatory told HKFP.
Ho also said that the El Nino could have brought favourable conditions for rain, as is the case when the phenomenon takes place during winter.
The downpour over the past few days followed an intense cold surge last weekend that brought the city its lowest temperatures in 59 years.
At 5pm on Friday, the air temperature was 17 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity was 92 percent. Over the next couple of days the weather will be mainly cloudy and windy with a few rain patches, although sunny periods are expected on Saturday. As the coast of Guangdong continues to come under the influence of the winter monsoon, it is expected to replenish and strengthen over the next week.
The weather will become gradually cold, with temperatures falling to 10 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
