La Niña to Bring Chilly Days to HK, Southern China

Image Caption: Hong Kong people should be prepared to dress warmly, says the Observatory. Photo: Getty Images

By Asia Times staff

Hong Kong, Macau and China’s Guangdong province should brace for chilly weather as a cold front is expected to drag down the mercury later this week.

The temperature in Hong Kong will drop to 16 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and further to 15 degrees or lower by Sunday.

The Hong Kong Observatory has also forecast more cold days with temperatures below 12 degrees in the coming three months, due to the La Niña effect, a combined ocean-atmosphere phenomenon.

The Observatory issued cold-weather warnings – when the daily average temperature dropped below 12 degrees – just seven times in 2016, compared with the annual average of 17.

Expect mainly fine but rather dry days to come, with relative humidity hovering as low as 40%, when the northeast monsoon advances southward.

It will be even cooler with rather large temperature differences between day and night over inland areas during the weekend and early next week, says the Observatory.

The continuous drop in surface water temperature in the equatorial Pacific Ocean could be a prelude to a new La Niña that may occur between this month and February, and judging from analysis of previous such occurrences, Hong Kong and its neighboring areas including provinces in southern China could see temperatures drop deeper than normal when there is a La Niña scenario in winter.

(Source: Atimes.com)