Hong Kong weather in 2019: record for thunderstorms equalled, more hot nights than ever, and one freak afternoon that ‘turned day into night’

Thunderstorms battered the city on 59 days between February and October, about 50 per cent more than the average

There were 46 hot nights, in which the temperature equalled or exceeded 28 degrees Celsius – five more than in 2017, when the previous record of 41 was set

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Lightning over Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour in August. The prevalence of storms in the city this year is on a par with 2014, which was a record year. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 8:30am, 5 Dec 2019Updated: 8:47am, 5 Dec 2019

No one can deny that Hong Kong has had a lashing this year, and it wasn’t just on the city’s protest-hit streets – 2019 has been one of the stormiest and wettest on record.

Thunderstorms battered the city on 59 days between February and October, an unusually high number and almost 50 per cent above the annual average.

The prevalence of storms this year is on a par with 2014; no other year exceeds 53 days. (Storms in November and January are uncommon, though not unheard of, while there has never been a storm in December since Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) records began in 1947.)

Rumbles of thunder provided the soundtrack to many of the summer’s political demonstrations, which began on June 9 with a mass march in temperatures reaching 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit). Protesters’ resolve was tested by numerous downpours as the months wore on.

Lightning over Tsim Sha Tsui. A record number of lightning strikes was recorded on April 20 this year. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

The most intense storm occurred on Saturday April 20; it produced 9,094 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, the highest on record for April since the observatory launched its lightning location system in 2005. A single afternoon of freak weather turned day into night and wreaked havoc, killing one man through a lightning strike and another in a boating accident and triggering the HKO’s first red rainstorm warning of the year.

Hong Kong weather in 2019: record for thunderstorms equalled, more hot nights than ever, and one freak afternoon that ‘turned day into night’

Thunderstorms battered the city on 59 days between February and October, about 50 per cent more than the average There were 46 hot nights, in which the temperature equalled or exceeded 28 degrees Celsius – five more than in 2017, when the previous record of 41 was set

Thunderstorms battered the city on 59 days between February and October, about 50 per cent more than the average

There were 46 hot nights, in which the temperature equalled or exceeded 28 degrees Celsius – five more than in 2017, when the previous record of 41 was set