With a warmer than normal sea surface temperature over the northern part of the South China Sea in August, the month was exceptionally hot, the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) said today.

It also attributed the hot weather to a stronger than usual southwesterly flow in the lower atmosphere over the southern China coast.

The monthly mean minimum temperature of 27.7 degrees Celsius, monthly mean temperature of 29.6 degrees and monthly mean maximum temperature of 32.3 degrees were respectively 1, 0.9 and 1 degrees above their normal figures.

The three monthly figures were respectively one of the second, the second and the fourth highest on record for August.

It was generally fine and persistently very hot from August 3 to 9, with the temperatures at the HKO soaring to a maximum of 35.4 degrees on the afternoon of August 5, the highest of the month.

The monthly rainfall was 261.5 mm, only about 58% of the norm of 453.2 mm.

The accumulated rainfall recorded in the first eight months of the year was 1,583.4 mm, about 18% below the norm of 1,921.5 mm for the same period.

Occasional showers and squally thunderstorms were recorded from August 14 to 21.

On August 15, and from August 17 to 19, over 100 mm of rainfall was generally recorded over the city, and the rainfall even exceeded 200 mm over parts of the urban areas, Tai Po and Sha Tin districts.

Six tropical cyclones occurred over the South China Sea and the western North Pacific in August, the HKO added.