May has been the wettest month in Macao for 20 years, according to the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG), with each of the city’s precipitation testing stations accumulating a total of over 300 millimetres of rainfall over five days.
The SMG noted that South China was affected by serious rainstorms from last Tuesday to Saturday in which torrential rainfall covered a wide area and lasted for a long time. The bureau pointed out that each rain testing station in Macao accumulated over 300 millimetres of rainfall on average, and the station at Dr Sun Yat Sen Municipal Garden in NAPE accumulated the highest rainfall of 390 millimetres, while the Garden of Tai Tam Hill’s station measured 373.2-millimetres of rainfall which is 87.2 millimetres more when compared to average records in May.
The SMG underlined that the rainfall last Thursday was the highest cumulative amount in a single day in May since 2013. Over 100 millimetres of rainfall was measured on 11 and 12 May which was the most since a similar storm in 1996.
The bureau highlighted that several rainstorm and thunderstorm warnings were issued last week including four Yellow and two Red warnings. The rainstorm warning on 12 May lasted for 16 hours and 10 minutes, which was considered the longest rainstorm warning since the announcement of the current three-level storm warning system was introduced in September 2020, The Macau Post Daily reported.
