- 7
Saturday, January 20, 1973
The year as a whole was slightly warmer, less cloudy but
much wetter than usual.
It was the 4th wettest year since 1884, and the annual
rainfall was more than 30 percent higher than normal.
Five tropical cyclones affected Hong Kong during the year,
but only one, Typhoon "Pamela", came sufficiently close to cause gales.
Apart from being slightly sunnier than usual, the weather during
January was fairly normal. Although there was measurable rain on only
three days, the total rainfall during the month was about 50 percent
above average.
A very intense cold front passed through Hong Kong on
February 4, and caused the air temperature to fall during the following
The minimum temperature recorded at the Royal Observatory
on February was 3.8 degrees Celsius, which was the third lowest
five days.
temperature ever recorded in February.
March was exceptionally fine and dry and several new records
were established,
The mean cloudiness of 49 percent and the mean relative humidity
of 73 percent were the lowest while the total sunshine of 188.6 hours
was the highest ever recorded for the month. The monthly rainfall was
also the second lowest on record for March.
April was a cloudy month with fog reported on several occasions.
However, the foggy spells during the month were generally short-lived
and did not seriously interrupt the air and sea traffic.
/The rainy