Prologue Journal

35 heat records broken in 2024, as Hong Kong sees hottest recorded year – Observatory

• prologu5
• 01/15/202501/15/2025

Hong Kong Free Press

Hong Kong saw 35 heat records broken in 2024, the Observatory has said, as it highlighted a warmer than ever winter and autumn. Last year was already the city’s hottest year since records began 140 years ago.

Aside from May, all months in 2024 logged higher temperatures against the average in the three decades between 1991 and 2020, according to the Hong Kong Observatory’s annual weather report published on Monday.

“2024 was the warmest year on record with the annual mean temperature reaching 24.8 degrees [Celsius], 1.3 degrees [Celsius] above the 1991-2020 normal,” the report read.

Among the “record-breaking high temperature events,” Hong Kong saw the warmest first six months of a year, with an average temperature of 23.3 degrees Celsius. The city also saw the hottest April on record, with an average temperature of 26.4 degrees Celsius.

The winter starting from December 2023 to February 2024 saw a maximum temperature of 28.7 degrees Celsius – the highest on record, and on par with the winter of 1953 and 1954.

Winter appeared to be shorter as the Observatory logged only 11 “cold days” – defined as a day with a minimum temperature of 12 degrees Celsius or below. The figure was 4.2 days less than the average recorded between 1991 and 2020.

The Observatory also logged an average temperature of 26.5 degrees Celsius between September and November last year, marking the warmest autumn on record.

The city experienced the hottest October with a 27.3 degrees Celsius monthly average temperature.

Explainer: After another ‘hotter than usual’ summer, how much is Hong Kong heating up?

Previously, Hong Kong’s hottest year to date was 2021, when the mean temperature was 24.6 degrees Celsius.

The were 52 “very hot days,” defined as a day when temperature reaches 33 degrees Celsius or above, and 50 “hot nights,” defined as a day when temperature does not dip below 28 degrees Celsius, in 2024. Both figures were among the highest on record.

August last year saw a record-breaking number of hot nights: 18, according to the Observatory’s report.

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

2024 was also the hottest year ever recorded worldwide, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

China and Taiwan are also among the territories that have seen record-breaking temperatures in 2024, according to the AFP.

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