Macao experienced its hottest March day on record yesterday, with the Taipa Grande observatory registering a temperature of 31℃.
The temperature exceeded the previous high of 29.8℃, recorded on 19 March 2008, according to a statement from the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials SMG). The bureau’s statement was cited by Macau Post Daily.
The new March high comes after a top meteorologist in Hong Kong – which itself experienced its hottest March day over the weekend – warned that climate change would result in another sweltering year for the region, with more and stronger typhoons as well.
[See more: Macao authorities are already making preparations for typhoon season]
The director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Dr Chan Pak-wai, told Hong Kong media that the cyclone season could begin as early as June and last until October or later.
The passage last year of super typhoon Saola marked the fourth time the SMG hoisted the no.10 – or most severe – typhoon signal in just seven years, following typhoons Higos (2020), Mangkhut (2018) and Hato (2017).
The bureau noted that this was the same number of no. 10 signals as were issued across the 49 years between 1968 and 2016, saying “Climate change leads to more frequent extremely severe weather.”
