Macao has experienced its third hottest year on record, with the average temperature across 2023 hitting 23.3℃ – and a record-breaking high of 35.2℃ being recorded in October, according to reports.
The year was 0.5℃ warmer than what’s considered the climatological norm, according to the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG). There were also only 26 so-called “cold” days recorded, 13 fewer than is generally expected.
Macao’s hottest year since records began in 1952 was 2019.
[See more: Global climate change is behind the rise in severe typhoons]
Not only was 2023 hot, it was wet. The year’s cumulative rainfall stood at 295.4 mm, about four times the norm. Last summer was reportedly the wettest in 15 years.
Macao was also impacted by five tropical cyclones last year, including super typhoon Saola – a signal no. 10 cyclone that, luckily, left the city mostly unscathed. Saola was the fourth time Macao hoisted the no. 10 typhoon signal in just seven years, following typhoons Higos in 2020, Mangkhut in 2018, and Hato in 2017. That’s the same number of no. 10 signals as was issued across the entire 49 years prior.
The SMG has described the rise in frequency of such signals as a confronting reminder of the planet’s changing climate. “Climate change leads to more frequent extremely severe weather,” it said.
