The rise in Hong Kong’s temperature has been illustrated in the latest set of “warming stripes” by British climate scientist Ed Hawkins as part of a worldwide campaign to spark discussion on global warming.
Saturday marks the eighth annual Show Your Stripes Day. The June 21 event encourages people around the world to share graphics representing temperature changes in different countries and regions over the past century and more.
Launched in 2018 by Hawkins, a University of Reading professor, the graphics for most countries and regions feature stripes that have shifted from predominantly blue to red in recent years, indicating rising temperatures in those locations.
The graphic for Hong Kong charts the city’s average temperature since 1885, based on data from the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO). The most recent stripe, shown in dark burgundy, represents the highest temperature rise relative to the average recorded between 1961 and 2010.
In a promotional video shared last month, Hawkins said the warming stripes aimed to transform “abstract meteorological data” into “something people can’t ignore.”
He said he wanted the graphics – which have been featured on football jerseys, projected onto the Tower of London, and displayed at the UN COP25 conference in Madrid – to prompt people to “ask questions.”
“You don’t need to be a scientist to understand the message and feel concern. The Earth is heating up, and the pace is accelerating,” Hawkins said.
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Last year was Hong Kong’s hottest since records began 140 years ago. The city broke 35 heat records, experiencing its warmest winter and autumn on record.
According to the Hong Kong Observatory’s annual report released in January, the annual mean temperature reached 24.8 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees above the 1991–2020 average.
Hong Kong recorded the hottest day of the year on June 10, with temperatures reaching a maximum of 34.3 degrees Celsius. The maximum UV index reached 12, an exposure level classified as “extreme.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that the intensity and frequency of heatwaves have continued to increase since the 1950s due to human-caused climate change.
The prevalence of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – which trap heat in the atmosphere – raises the planet’s surface temperature, with hotter, longer heatwaves putting lives at risk.
Hong Kong has already warmed by 1.7 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, research NGO Berkeley Earth says.
Heat and humidity may reach lethal levels for protracted periods by the end of the century, according to a 2023 study, making it impossible to stay outdoors in some parts of the world.
