What’s wrong with Hong Kong’s weather? How climate change has caused recent erratic conditions
[...]
Both local and international experts interviewed by the Post said the impact of climate change on the city of 1,100 sq km was becoming increasingly obvious, albeit manifesting itself slightly differently from places better-studied by scientists.
[...]
On April 29, the Observatory issued its earliest ever “very hot weather” warning since introducing the system 22 years ago, with the mercury reaching a sweltering 35.7 degrees Celsius at the Wetland Park in the city’s northwest.
But just four days later, Hongkongers experienced the coldest May day recorded since 1917, with a minimum temperature of 16.4 degrees.
[...]
“My estimation is [the temperature shift] could be an outcome of a jet stream fluctuation,” said Johnny Chan Chung-leung, an emeritus professor of atmospheric science at City University, referring to air currents in the atmosphere. “Under global warming, the weaker the stability of the jet stream, the more the temperature fluctuates.”
[...]
Climatologists have generally hypothesised that the jet stream will gradually weaken as a result of global warming, causing the polar regions to heat up more rapidly than other parts of the globe, a phenomenon they call polar amplification.
[...]
