The Hong Kong Observatory has confirmed that 2024 was the warmest year in the city since authorities began keeping track of weather data in 1884. The meteorological body says that 11 months were hotter than usual last year — the standouts being record-high monthly mean temperatures in April and October and the SAR’s hottest autumn.
How hot was Hong Kong in 2024?
The observatory reveals that the annual mean temperature for 2024 was 24.8 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees over the 1991-2020 normal. In addition, the annual mean minimum temperature of 22.8 degrees was the highest ever logged. The local weather forecaster added that September-November 2024 was the hottest autumn in Hong Kong, with a mean temperature of 26.5 degrees. In fact, the highest temperature recorded at the observatory headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui was 35.7 degrees on September 17, making it the hottest Mid-Autumn Festival in the city’s history.
Highest temperature | 35.7°C |
Lowest temperature | 6.3°C |
Very hot days | 52 |
Hot nights | 50 |
Extremely hot days | 2 |
Cold days | 11 |
Typhoons (T1 or higher) | 7 |
All-time-high monthly mean temperatures were also recorded in April (26.4 degrees) and October (27.3 degrees). During the year, there were 52 very hot days when temperatures reached or exceeded 33 degrees, and two extremely hot days when the mercury touched or crossed 35 degrees. However, the SAR only had 11 cold days when temperatures fell to 12 degrees or below — about four fewer days than usual — and the lowest temperature for the year was 6.3 degrees on January 23.
More thunderstorm warnings, but less rain
Overall, the territory had 2,309.7 mm of rainfall, which is about 5% less than over the previous 30 years. While the observatory issued four red rainstorm warnings in 2024, there were no black rain alerts like in 2023 when the city experienced its heaviest rainfall in 140 years. The thunderstorm warning was raised on 54 days last year, 12 days more than normal.
Seven typhoons came within 800km of Hong Kong last year for which the observatory issued typhoon signals of T1 or higher. Unusually, there were two T8 typhoons in autumn — Yagi in early September and Toraji in mid-November.
Several records were broken or equalled in 2024 when it came to the highest temperatures, the number of hot days and nights for certain months, and the last very hot day for the year, among others — all of which as listed in the following table:
Image credits: Leung Cho Pan via Canva