Macau saw warmer weather in 2023 with more bad air quality days

Macau saw slightly warmer weather last year as the mean temperature stood at 23.4 degrees Celsius in 2023, 0.6 degrees above the climatological normal (1991-2020).

Data from the the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), shows the monthly temperature of 35.2 degrees was recorded in October, breaking the record for the month.

The numbers of hot days (with maximum temperature at or above 33 degrees) and hot nights (with minimum temperature at or above 28 degrees) were 32 and 15 respectively, up by 0.7 days and 3.5 nights compared with the climatological normal (1991-2020).

This comes as global climate agencies have reported that Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of being a hotter planet.

The European climate agency, Copernicus, said the year was 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, which barely below the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit that the world hoped to stay within in the 2015 Paris climate accord to avoid the most severe effects of warming.

Meanwhile, the number of cold days in the SAR – with a minimum temperature at or below 12 degrees – decreased 13.1 to 26 days.

Earlier this year, the group leader of international climate scientists who calculate global warming’s role in extreme weather, Imperial College climate scientist Friederike Otto, said, “We definitely see in our analysis the strong impact of this being the hottest year.”

2023 has shattered climate records, accompanied by extreme weather which has left a trail of devastation and despair, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Meanwhile, in the same statement, the DSEC reported that air quality in 2023 ranged from “Good” to “Very Bad”.

The number of “Good” air quality days recorded at each monitoring station decreased year-on-year, while the number of “Moderate” air quality days increased.

Among all stations, the ambient station in Taipa had the highest number of “Bad” air quality days (32 days) and recorded one “Very Bad” air quality day. This station also registered the highest air quality index of the year, at 209 (“Very Bad” level), with ozone (O3) being the main pollutant.