Hong Kong set for week-long heatwave after record-breaking temperatures in March

Hongkongers are set to endure a week-long heatwave from Friday, with highs of up to 30 degrees Celsius expected into next week, according to the Observatory (HKO).

File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

It comes after the weather service reported record-breaking heat during March.

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“Under the influence of a southerly airstream, it will be hot over the coast of Guangdong in the next few days,” the Observatory said on Friday. “An anticyclone aloft will cover the northern part of the South China Sea and the coast of southern China early next week.”

By lunchtime on Friday, temperatures had already topped 30 degrees Celsius in some parts of the city.

Showers are expected across southern China and Hong Kong late next week and into next weekend.

Record heat in March

The Observatory noted last week that the city had experienced an unseasonably warm March.

Last month, Hong Kong saw a monthly mean temperature of 21.5 degrees Celsius – the second highest on record. The monthly mean maximum temperature of 24.5 degrees Celsius was the third-highest on record.

A woman walks under an umbrella in Hong Kong on May 8, 2024. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

In March, the HKO said that the city had experienced its warmest winter on record, with an average temperature reaching 19.3 degrees Celsius.

Also last month, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned that the planet’s climate is more out of balance than at any time in history, with Earth gaining much more heat energy than it can release.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the intensity and frequency of heatwaves have continued to increase since the 1950s due to human-caused climate change. The prevalence of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – which trap heat in the atmosphere – raises the planet’s surface temperature, with hotter, longer heatwaves putting lives at risk.

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Hong Kong has already warmed by 1.7 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, research NGO Berkeley Earth says. Heat and humidity may reach lethal levels for protracted periods by the end of the century, according to a 2023 study, making it impossible to stay outdoors in some parts of the world.

“Planet Earth is being pushed beyond its limits. Every key climate indicator is flashing red,” UN Secretary General António Guterres said on World Meteorological Day last month. “Humanity has just endured the 11 hottest years on record. When history repeats itself 11 times, it is no longer a coincidence. It is a call to act.”