Hong Kong hits 36.9 degrees, its hottest day since records began in 1884

Hong Kong experienced the hottest day in its meteorological history on Sunday 9 August. The city's Observatory measured 36.9 degrees Celsius at its headquarters in the Tsim Sha Tsui district. It is the highest temperature since records began in 1884.

The previous record had stood since 22 August 2017, when 36.6 degrees were reached. The institution's historical series thus covers more than 140 years of observations, a period in which the metropolis had never seen such a value.

A typhoon lies behind the exceptional heat. According to the Observatory, the record is linked to Dolphin, the tropical cyclone approaching China's eastern coast and heading for the Zhejiang region before moving further inland. What is heating the city is the air circulating on the edge of the system: "La massa d'aria alla sua periferia continuerà a portare temperature estremamente elevate sul territorio da oggi fino a martedì" (the air mass at its periphery will continue to bring extremely high temperatures to the territory from today until Tuesday), the weather service warns in its bulletin.

The 36.9-degree peak was not even the highest reading recorded on Sunday across the territory. In other parts of the city, thermometers exceeded 37 degrees. The official figure, however, remains that of Tsim Sha Tsui: the Observatory uses the measurements from its headquarters as the reference for the whole city, and it is on that basis that records are compared.

One element, finally, links the two peaks of the historical series. The 36.6 degrees of August 2017 were also recorded shortly before the arrival of a typhoon, in that case Hato. Then too, the all-time high coincided with a tropical cyclone approaching the region.

If the Observatory's forecast is confirmed and the hot air brought by Dolphin lingers over the territory for days to come, Sunday's record may not remain for long the latest in a series of measurements that has been running for more than a century.