Hong Kong woke up to a nippy morning on Tuesday as temperatures dropped to 12 degrees Celsius in the city, and even lower in the New Territories, due to the intense northeast monsoon.

According to the Hong Kong Observatory, Kowloon City and Kwun Tong districts saw the mercury dip to 10.9°C around 5:30 am while Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island had 11.5°C. 

Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong’s highest peak, recorded a minimum temperature of 2.4°C at 3:47 am while the Ngong Ping highland in Lantau logged 5.9°C at 5:46 am. 

Temperatures in the city eventually rose to 17°C around lunchtime and the Cold Weather Warning, which was raised on Monday afternoon, was cancelled at 10:30 am.

The HKO said the weather will be mainly fine and dry for the rest of the day with moderate east to northeasterly winds.

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It added that the city can expect more cool mornings in the next couple of days, with the mercury ranging from 14°C to 18°C on Wednesday, before another intense winter monsoon reaches the region this weekend.

“Cold in the morning over the weekend. The minimum temperature will be around 11 degrees in the urban areas, and a few degrees lower in the New Territories,” the observatory said.

The Center for Health Protection reminded members of the public, particularly the elderly and persons with chronic illnesses, to take precautions as the cold weather can easily trigger or exacerbate diseases.

A sunny, dry January

Meanwhile, the HKO said that January was slightly warmer than usual, with the city recording a mean temperature of 17.1°C, 0.6 degrees above the normal of 16.5°C.

The monthly total sunshine duration amounted to 222.3 hours, which is about 52 percent higher than the normal of 145.8 hours, the observatory said.  

It also noted that only 4.2 millimeters of rainfall were recorded last month, which is about 13 percent of the normal of 33.2 millimeters.