Hong Kong
26 cities
Climate overview
Hong Kong sits at 22°15′N as a Special Administrative Region of China on the southern coast of Guangdong province, covering approximately 1,114 km² of dramatically hilly terrain with the highest point Tai Mo Shan at 957 m in the New Territories.
The territory comprises Hong Kong island, the Kowloon peninsula, approximately 260 outlying islands (including Lantau, Lamma, and Cheung Chau) and the New Territories backing onto mainland China. Located on the South China Sea coast just inside the Tropic of Cancer, the climate is humid subtropical (Köppen Cwa) with strong Asian monsoon influence, characterized by hot, humid, very wet summers driven by the southwest monsoon and typhoons, and cooler, drier winters dominated by the dry northeast monsoon flow off mainland China.
Hong Kong Observatory sees January highs of 19°C with nights of 15°C and July highs of 32°C with nights of 27°C, with approximately 2,400 mm of rainfall concentrated mostly from May through September and a sharp peak in June–August. Relative humidity averages 81–83% from spring through summer and 70–74% from October to January. Sea-surface temperatures range from around 17–18°C in February to about 27°C in September and October. Rare snow has fallen on Tai Mo Shan summit.
Hong Kong sits squarely in the western Pacific's typhoon belt: severe typhoon strikes include Wanda in September 1962, a storm-surge disaster that left 130 people dead and 53 missing, Hope in 1979, York in 1999 with the longest No. 10 signal since the Second World War, Hato in August 2017, a Category 3-equivalent typhoon with storm surge, Mangkhut in September 2018, the most intense typhoon to strike Hong Kong since 1983, passing about 100 km to the south with gusts up to 220 km/h, and the extreme black rainstorm event of 7–8 September 2023 when Hong Kong Observatory recorded 158.1 mm in one hour, a record. Sea-level rise and intensifying typhoon storm surges, increasingly severe summer heatwaves, and frequent extreme rainfall events are central concerns for the territory's extensive reclaimed-land coastline.
Our archive covers 26 Hong Kong cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The hottest July afternoons are in Yuen Long, with average highs around 31°C, while Ma On Shan has the coldest January nights, with average lows near 11.2°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.2°C.
How the climate has shifted in Hong Kong
Average across 26 cities with full ERA5 coverage: 1940–1970 baseline vs the last decade (2016–2025).
- Annual mean temperature
- 22.4°C→23.6°C
- Days above 30°C per year
- 32 days→83 days+51
- Frost days per year
- 0 days→0 days+0
- Tropical nights (≥20°C) per year
- 216 nights→234 nights+18
Warmest year in the record so far: 2019.
What's unusual right now
From a snapshot of the world's largest cities updated each hour. Today's mean temperature compared with each city's long-term average for the same calendar date (ERA5 climatology, 1940 onward). Last 30 days uses each city's rolling daily-mean vs its monthly average. Not a global ranking.