This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.
Hong Kong logged its hottest day of the year so far as the mercury hit 34.6 degrees Celsius (94.3 Fahrenheit) in urban areas on Friday, while the temperature in some parts of the city climbed to nearly 36 degrees.
The Observatory recorded the scorching urban temperature at around 2.30pm at its headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui.
“The subtropical ridge is bringing generally fine and very hot weather to southeastern China,” the forecaster said. “Locally, the maximum temperature recorded at the Observatory was 34.6 degrees in the afternoon, the highest so far this year.”
Temperatures were even higher in other parts of the city, with the mercury topping 35.7 degrees in Sheung Shui. Ta Kwu Ling, Yuen Long Park and Chek Lap Kok also saw temperatures reach or exceed 35 degrees.
The forecaster in July last year recorded a temperature of 36.1 degrees – the highest temperature of that year and the third highest on record.
The Observatory on Wednesday said that the first half of 2024 was “abnormally warm.”
The mean minimum temperature between January and June was 21.4 degrees, the highest on record for the period. The mean maximum temperature of 25.8 degrees was also the second-highest on record.
Forecasters said five of the first six months of the year were warmer than usual.
The city logged nine consecutive days of “very hot weather warnings” last month, which the forecaster said was one of the longest stretches on record for June.
The highest temperature recorded by the forecaster at its headquarters was 36.6 degrees on August 22, 2017.
The Observatory said the subtropical ridge was expected to weaken moving into the weekend, but that temperatures would remain very hot over the coast of southern China.
The forecaster predicted sunny periods and a few isolated showers on Saturday. Sunday is expected to be mainly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms.
The temperature is expected to hit 33 degrees over both days, with lows of 28.
