A Cold Warning has been issued in Hong Kong - this is presumably a
side-effect of the cold weather affecting parts of southern China.

Today's maximum at the airport was a decidely chilly 10.1°C. The
January average max (1971-2000, at the King's Park site on Kowloon) is
18.6°C, but an indication of how cold this is for Hong Kong is that
the mean MIN for January is 16.1°C with just 2.5 degC normal diurnal
range. The max on 27th was also 10.1°C. Earlier in the month
*minimum* temperatures exceeded 20°C, with daytime temperatures
reaching 27°C on 11th.

Very cloudy and wet, too - yesterday 29.1 mm fell at the airport, this
compares with the January monthly average of 24.9 mm.

Mo http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/current.htm

--
Stephen Burt
Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire

I've a friend a lived in Hong Kong for 23 years and he said the temperature
could drop as low as 7C during the winter time, and this was not that
uncommon.

Due to the fact that the houses/apartments are designed for hot weather, he
said it was quite unpleasant when the weather turned cold as there was no
central heating etc, so everybody had to huddle around an electric heater to
keep warm. Many old people would die of hyperthermia during these cold
spells.
________________
Nick G
Otter Valley, Devon
83 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk

Many old people would die of hyperthermia during these cold
spells.

Especially them damn fangled 10kw jobs.

Ha! Spell checkers! That's my excuse anyway.

I'll rephrase that then.........

......Many old people would die of hypothermia during these cold
spells.
________________
Nick G
Otter Valley, Devon
83 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:18:29 -0000, "Nick Gardner"
wrote:

Many old people would die of hyperthermia during these cold
spells.

They shouldn't sit so close to the heater ;-)

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in Argyll, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.gt-britain.co.uk/weather

On 31 Jan, 22:18, "Nick Gardner"
wrote:
I've a friend a lived in Hong Kong for 23 years and he said the temperature
could drop as low as 7C during the winter time, and this was not that
uncommon.

Due to the fact that the houses/apartments are designed for hot weather, he
said it was quite unpleasant when the weather turned cold as there was no
central heating etc, so everybody had to huddle around an electric heater to
keep warm. Many old people would die of hyperthermia during these cold
spells.
________________
Nick G
Otter Valley, Devon
83 m amslhttp://www.ottervalley.co.uk

You're right - dwellings (mostly high-rise apartments) are geared
towards encouraging a through draught (although most now have aircon),
but tight-fitting doors and windows are not normally a necessity at
22°N of course.

Hospital admissions in HK rise sharply with mins below 12°C, which is
officially a 'cold day' in HK and warnmings are issued to 'keep warm':
statistics of this are kept, and it occurs on average 19 days/year
over 1971-2000 - notably 13 in Jan 2008 alone.

The lowest min at the Observatory was 8.5°C on 31st Jan; this is far
from the all-time record (0.0°C on 18 Jan 1893, records commenced
1884) but as the Observatory site is now but a small oasis of green in
the middle of urban density such as we would find hard to believe even
in our crowded little island (8 M people in an area about the size of
Reading or Swindon) the frequency of low mins has declined hugely. The
Jan lowest in the last 20 years or so is 6°C so I suspect the 7°C
figure you refer to may have referred to windchill (occasionally quite
severe) or to temperatures on the tops of the mountains which surround
Hong Kong.

As a postscript to this cold spell - there's been no sunshine recorded
there since 23 January, 9 days and counting - that must also make the
cold even more penetrating. I would imagine importers of electric
heaters and warm weather clothing are doing a roaring trade! Quite
remarkable for a tropical location.

--
Stephen Burt
Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire