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Ben Westcott

The Hong Kong Observatory on Tuesday issued its first January amber rainstorm since the system began, as the city recorded its second-darkest Christmas season ever.
More than 50mm of rain fell in parts of Hong Kong on Tuesday, double the monthly average for January which is usually the driest month of the year.
At 2pm, Hong Kong Observatory issued its first ever January amber rainstorm warning, on top of a thunderstorm warning which had previously been issued at about 1.38pm.
Heavy rainfall in January is very unusual in Hong Kong, with only 24.7mm of rain expected during the month on average — the driest of the year.

There had not been a January amber rainstorm warning in the city since the Observatory introduced the system in 1998.
It came as the Observatory’s new statistics showed the city endured its second darkest day on record, as clouds covered the city for most of the month.
Locals had a warm, wet and sunless December, as more than double the average rainfall saturated Hong Kong and temperatures were at least a degree above normal.
According to the Observatory, there were only 75.9 hours of bright sunshine in the past month, an average of just two and a half every day and less than half the average.
READ MORE: Five things you need to know about flu season in Hong Kong this year
Since records began in 1961, only 1994 had fewer hours of sunlight, leaving Hong Kong suffering through an overcast Christmas.
Observatory chief experimental officer Li Kin-wai said the amount of sunshine in December had been just 44 per cent of the normal amount.
“Hong Kong was dominated by the south-westerly airstream in December,” he said. “This led to generally cloudy and gloomy weather over Hong Kong during the month.”
Li said while the city had continued to be affected by a north-easterly monsoon, the entire coast had seen high-level humidity due to the low-level south-westerly winds. “It could be blowing from surface level and also lower level regions,” he said.
Rainfall for December was more than double its usual total, coming after two extremely dry months, as 64.3mm fell on two particularly stormy days.
The average monthly rainfall for Hong Kong in December was just 26.8mm – the second driest month of the year in general.
Meanwhile, the average air temperature was 18.6 degrees, just 0.7 degrees up on the monthly average, although the minimum temperature across December was 1.2 degree above the norm.
However, Li said the higher temperatures had not been outside the normal range of variation. The Observatory was to release its numbers for the whole of 2015 on Thursday, he said.


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Hong Kong weather: first January amber rainstorm warning issued

No Caption Available.

The Observatory issued the amber warning at 2pm on Tuesday. Photo: Sam Tsang

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Health & Environment

The second darkest start to the year on record, with more than double the average rainfall


New | Hong Kong weather: first January amber rainstorm warning issued

The second darkest start to the year on record, with more than double the average rainfall