Hong Kong has officially recorded its highest ever temperature, with the city’s weather observatory posting a temperature of 36.9C on Sunday. This surpasses the previous record of 36.6C set on August 22, 2017, before Typhoon Hato hit. The record-breaking temperature was fueled by Typhoon Dolphin, which swept warm air over the city.
The approaching storm has triggered intense heat in the region over the weekend, leading to mass flight cancellations and evacuations along China’s east coast before making landfall on Sunday evening. A weather station in Sheung Shui, in the city’s north, recorded 39.8C, the highest temperature logged in Hong Kong since automatic weather stations were introduced in the 1980s. The extreme heat has prompted the observatory to issue a ‘very hot weather warning’, advising citizens to drink water and avoid vigorous outdoor physical activities.
The typhoon made landfall in the Chinese mainland, about 1,000km north-east of Hong Kong, bringing maximum sustained winds of 94mph near its centre. Scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme heat events more frequent and more intense worldwide.
