The Weather of February 2006

    February 2006 was warmer and sunnier than usual. The mean temperature of 17.7 degrees was 1.8 degrees above normal and ranked the tenth highest for February. The total duration of bright sunshine was 123.2 hours, 25.5 hours above normal. Beset by hazy weather, the number of hours of reduced visibility observed at the Hong Kong International Airport reached 273 hours (i.e. about 41 % of the time) in the month. The monthly total rainfall was 37.7 millimetres, 10.3 millimetres below the normal amount.

    Under the influence of a weak northeast monsoon, it was mainly fine and hazy on the first day of February. Fine weather continued in the ensuing two days while the visibility improved as the winds picked up speed. The weather turned cool and cloudy on 4 February when a cold front moved across the south China coast early that morning. The clouds dispersed and there were sunny periods on 5 February.

    Dominated by a continental airstream, there was plenty of sunshine from 6 to 10 February. Under light wind conditions, it was hazy on 11 and 12 February with visibility generally falling below 4000 metres in Hong Kong. Easterly winds strengthened later on 12 February and cleared the haze.

    A broad band of clouds covered southern China and brought some rain to the territory on 13 and 14 February. When a maritime airstream set in on the morning of 15 February, it was foggy with visibility dropping below 1000 metres inside the harbour. The fog and clouds dispersed later during the day and it was warm in the afternoon sunshine. Warm and misty conditions persisted on 16 February and the temperature rose to 25.3 degrees, the highest in the month. A cold front crossed the south China coast that night, bringing clouds and some rain to the territory on 17 February. It was rather cool in the next two days.

    Haze returned on 20 February when the northeast monsoon weakened. It was fine and warm in the following two days.

    Another cold front reached the coast of Guangdong in the small hours of 23 February, bringing cloudy weather to Hong Kong. The weather remained cloudy with rain patches in the following two days. The northeast monsoon strengthened on the night of 26 February. It remained windy and cool with rain patches the next day. Accompanied by the rain, the strong northerlies brought the temperature down to 9.7 degrees on the night of 28 February, the lowest in the month.

     There was no tropical cyclone over the South China Sea and the western North Pacific in the month.

    Details of issuance and cancellation of various warnings/signals in the month are summarized in Tables 1.1 to 1.4.  Monthly meteorological figures and departures from normal for February are tabulated in Table 2.