Hong Kong records its coldest weather for 59 years
Print Edition
A COLD snap gripped Hong Kong yesterday, with residents shivering as temperatures plunged to their lowest point in nearly 60 years and frost dusted the mountaintops of a city used to a subtropical climate.
Weather officials issued a frost warning saying an “intense cold surge” was in place, coupled with chilling monsoon winds.
Morning temperatures dropped to 3.3 Celsius in urban areas of the south China city, where most buildings lack central heating, and below freezing on the hills.
“It is the coldest day since 1957,” said senior scientific officer Wong Wai-kin. “The daily minimum dropped to 3.3 degrees Celsius, the previous record was 2.4 degrees in February 1957.”
While the cold snap is by no means on the scale of the weather now affecting the United States and swathes of China’s mainland, such temperatures are a novelty for many residents.
“It is very cold and windy over Hong Kong. People are advised to put on warm clothes and to avoid prolonged exposure to wintry winds,” read a note published on a city government website.
As the mercury dropped, curious residents flocked to higher ground in search of frost, according to local broadcaster Cable TV.
“It’s very cold, my feet feel numb,” a young visitor to Tai Mo Shan, the highest mountain in Hong Kong, told the broadcaster.
Screenshots of flakes also swamped social media but weather forecasters said the precipitation was “rain with small ice pellets” rather than snow.
About 20 participants of a local race were sent to hospital after experiencing symptoms associated with hypothermia.
Conditions are not expected to warm up until the middle of the week, weather forecasters said.
According to the Hong Kong Observatory, the coldest weather occurred in January 1893, when temperatures plunged to zero degrees Celsius.
People’s Daily said yesterday on its Weibo account that the neighboring Guangzhou city recorded its first snowfall since 1929.
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