A warmer January with cold interludes
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Under the influence of the northeast monsoon, the weather of Hong Kong was dry with sunny intervals on the first two days of the month. Affected by a replenishment of the northeast monsoon and a band of clouds over the coast of Guangdong, the weather turned mainly cloudy and cooler with a few rain patches on January 3. With the thinning out of cloud band covering the coastal areas, there were sunny periods on the afternoon of January 4. The weather became fine and mild during the day on January 5 and 6 under the moderation of the northeast monsoon.
With the setting in of a fresh to strong easterly airstream and the influence of a broad band of clouds associated with an upper-air disturbance, the weather of Hong Kong turned cloudier on January 7. Local weather remained cloudy with a few rain patches on January 8 to 12. Affected by a maritime airstream, the weather became mild and foggy with a few rain patches on January 13 and 14. The visibility at Waglan Island once fell to around 100 metres on the morning of January 13. With sunny periods during the day, the temperatures at the Observatory rose to a maximum of 24.7 degrees on January 14, the highest of the month.
A cold front moved across the coast of Guangdong on the morning of January 15. Locally, it was mainly cloudy with temperature falling significantly on January 15. There were also a few rain and fog patches at first on that day. Under the influence of the northeast monsoon, it was cloudy and cold on January 16 and 17. While it remained cold on the morning of January 18, the weather turned generally fine and dry on January 18 and 19 under the influence of a continental airstream. Affected by an easterly airstream and a band of clouds covering the coast of Guangdong, the weather of Hong Kong was a mixture of sunny periods and a few rain patches from January 20 to 22. Under light wind conditions, there were sunny periods with rather low visibility in some areas on January 23.
Another cold front moved across the coast of Guangdong on the morning of January 24. With winds strengthening from the north, apart from a few rain patches at first, the weather of Hong Kong became fine, dry and significantly colder on that day. Under the influence of the associated intense northeast monsoon, it was mainly cloudy with cold mornings on January 25 and 26. With the arrival of a replenishment of the dry northeast monsoon, the weather turned generally fine and dry on January 27. Local weather remained fine with cold mornings in the next three days. The temperatures at the Observatory fell to a minimum of 9.8 degrees on the morning of January 29, the lowest of the month. It was also very dry during the day on January 28 and 29. Moreover, there were frost reports in Tai Po and parts of the northeastern New Territories respectively on the mornings of January 29 and 30. With the northeast monsoon moderating, there were sunny periods with rising temperature on the last day of the month.
There was no tropical cyclone over the South China Sea and the western North Pacific in January 2023.
Details of issuance and cancellation of various warnings/signals in the month are summarised in Table 1. Monthly meteorological figures and departures from normal for January are tabulated in Table 2.
Ends/Thursday, February 2, 2023
Issued at HKT 15:00
Issued at HKT 15:00
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