The Weather of August 2016

    The weather of August 2016 was generally rainy with less sunshine than usual. The total duration of sunshine recorded in the month was 148.5 hours, about 21 percent below the normal figure of 188.9 hours. The monthly total rainfall was 532.7 millimetres, about 23 percent above the normal figure of 432.2 millimetres. The accumulated rainfall of 1941.4 millimetres for the first eight months was about 2 percent above the normal figure of 1905.5 millimetres for the same period.
    After skirting past the north coast of Luzon, Nida intensified from a severe tropical storm to a typhoon and headed straight for the coast of Guangdong on the first day of the month. Under the influence of the outer rainbands of Nida, local weather was showery on 1 August with strengthening winds that night. Southerly gales swept in over the territory as Nida made landfall near Dapang Peninsula and moved across Shenzhen just north of Hong Kong on the morning of 2 August. With Nida weakening and moving away, local winds moderated gradually during the day. However, the weather remained overcast with heavy squally showers. More than 100 millimetres of rainfall fell over the territory that day, with rainfall amount even exceeding 200 millimetres in some parts of Lantau Island. The rainy conditions continued over the next couple of days with some heavy showers affecting Lantau Island and Tai Po.

    With an area of high pressure developing over the southeastern part of China, the sun broke through on 5 August, and the weather remained generally fine and very hot over the next three days. As a broad area of low pressure extended from the western North Pacific all the way into the northern part of the South China Sea, the weather over the coastal areas of Guangdong turned more unsettled. Heat showers and intense thunderstorms around noon time on 9 August brought more than 4000 cloud-to-ground lightning stokes to Hong Kong. Cloudy and showery conditions persisted over the next seven days, and even for a rather sunny day on 13 August, there were still some heavy showers affecting the western part of the territory that day. Meanwhile, weak depressions hovered over the south China coastal waters during the period, and from one such depression, Dianmu developed into a tropical storm off the coast of western Guangdong, bringing windy conditions and squally showers to Hong Kong on 17 and 18 August.

    With Dianmu moving away towards northern Vietnam, local weather was a mixture of sunny periods, showers and isolated thunderstorms on 19 - 21 August. The lowest temperature of the month at the Hong Kong Observatory, 24.5 degrees, was recorded in the early hours of 21 August as intense thundery showers swept across the territory. Meanwhile, three tropical cyclones developed in quick succession over the western North Pacific. One of them, Severe Typhoon Lionrock, lingered for days over the sea areas east of the Ryukyu Islands. With southern China under sunny skies and light wind conditions, a spell of fine and very hot weather lasted for six days in Hong Kong from 22 to 27 August. Temperature at the Observatory rose to 34.4 degrees on 25 August, the highest of the month.

    The weather turned cloudier as showery activities affected Hong Kong early on 28 August, and even though the showers eased off, the skies remained cloudy the next day as an intensifying anticyclone over China brought drier continental air to the coastal areas of Guangdong. Despite some sunny periods, mainly cloudy conditions with some showers persisted towards the end of the month.