Hong Kong recorded its highest temperature since official measurements began in 1884, with the mercury reaching 36.9°C at the Hong Kong Observatory's Tsim Sha Tsui headquarters on Sunday afternoon. The previous record of 36.6°C was set in August 2017 just before Typhoon Hato struck the city.
The extreme heat was driven in part by subsiding air ahead of Typhoon Dolphin, which is approaching China's eastern coast and bringing clear skies and intense warmth to the region. Temperatures climbed steadily through the afternoon, breaking the old mark at 1:15 p.m. before continuing to rise.
Outlying automatic weather stations registered even more extreme readings. The Sheung Shui station in the northern New Territories logged 39.8°C, the highest temperature recorded anywhere in Hong Kong since the network of automated stations was installed in the 1980s.