DSEC: warmest May last year since 1952

Recording the highest temperature of the year at 35.8 degrees Celsius, last May was the warmest May for nearly 70 years.

According to data collected from the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) and analyzed by the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC), May 2018 was the warmest such month since 1952. The previous record was just 31.4 degrees Celsius.

However, last year’s highest temperature was still 2.2 degrees short of the record seen during the entirety of 2017.

Last year’s lowest temperature was recorded in February, at 4.6 degrees Celsius, 2.5 degrees lower than that of 2017.

The mean temperature, on the other hand, was 22.8 degrees Celsius in 2018, compared to 23 degrees Celsius in 2017.

As to rainfall, a total of 1,795mm was recorded in Macau by the SMG last year, which was 12.4mm more than that in 2017. The year saw 39 days with acidic rain.

Nonetheless, there was some improvement in air quality last year.

According to a summary report by DSEC, all air quality monitoring stations “showed a significant decrease in the number of ‘poor’ air quality days,” apart from the ambient monitoring station in Taipa.

Generally speaking, air quality was better in 2018 than in 2017.

Seven tropical cyclones struck Macau in 2018 with a nine-hour-long signal 10 necessitated by Typhoon Mangkhut.

Meanwhile, both the city’s population and land area recorded growth in 2018, according to the data.

Macau had a population of 658,000 in 2018 and a total land area of 32.9 square kilometers. The population density was about 20,000 persons per square kilometer last year, down by 1,100 persons per square kilometer in the previous year. DSEC attributed this to the reclamation connected to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai- Macau Bridge. Staff reporter