Hong Kong records gloomy September

City saw 21pc less sunshine than normal last month, but with warmer temperatures and below average rainfall

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It has been a gloomy September for Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 11:30am, 5 Oct 2016Updated: 11:29am, 5 Oct 2016

The city saw a gloomier September than usual, with 21 per cent less sunshine than normal, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

But that did not translate into more wet days, as total rainfall came to 323.1mm, slightly below the average of 327.6mm.

It was also slightly warmer, with a mean temperature of 27.9 degrees Celsius, 0.2 degrees above the average of 27.7 degrees, with last week’s Typhoon Megi pushing the mercury to 34.9 degrees, marking the second-highest September day recorded.

The total duration of sunshine recorded was 135.7 hours, 36.6 hours below the normal figure of 172.3 hours and the seventh lowest on record for September.

With a trough of low pressure lingering over the South China coast, the weather in Hong Kong was unstable, with showers and thunderstorms on the first 10 days of the month. The showers were particularly heavy on September 1, 5 and 10, with over 30mm of rainfall across the city.

With the trough of low pressure weakening gradually, there were sunny periods and a few showers on September 11.

Under the dominance of an anticyclone over southern China, local weather became generally fine apart from a few isolated showers on September 12 and 13. Meanwhile, Super Typhoon Meranti moved across the Luzon Strait on the night of September 13 and swept across the coastal waters of southwestern Taiwan the next day.