City sweats on record-hot March day

The city has recorded the highest temperature in March since records began in 1952, as the city sweltered through a hot day yesterday reaching 31 degrees Celsius, according to the city’s observatory.

The maximum temperature was recorded at the Ka Ho, reaching 32.7 degrees Celsius.

The Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) attributed the weather to the weak northeast monsoon, resulting in generally sunny and cloudy conditions in Macau.

The previous highest temperature on record in March was on Mar. 19, 2008, when the city reached 29.8 degrees Celsius.

Just recently, the World Meteorological Organization warned of a high probability of 2024 becoming another record-hot year.

2023 was confirmed as the warmest calendar year on record, with global temperature data records going back to 1850. 

Omar Baddour, WMO’s chief of climate monitoring, stated that according to recent data from the UN weather agency, there is a “high probability that 2024 will again break the record of 2023.”

“January was the warmest January on record. So, the records are still being broken.”

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the region’s temperature on Sunday reached the highest recorded level during the month of March in 140 years, according to the city’s observatory.

The maximum temperature measured at the observatory was 31.5 degrees Celsius — the highest reported temperature during the month of March since records began in 1884 — while temperatures surged to above 32 degrees in the northern areas of the territory close to the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.