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Cold in East Asia


Xenon

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Hong Kong recorded a low of 3.1C/~37F yesterday, and this was recorded in the afternoon - around 2:00 pm! Amazing. 

Sanya - at the southern tip of Hainan Island - recorded a high of only 14C/60F (the average LOW is 18.5C/65F)...and Vinh, Vietnam only 8C. Both coastal tropical locations at 18N!

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Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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Those areas have continuous land mass all the way to the arctic so if they get the wrong wind there's no large body of water to moderate temperatures. And dry air can chill rapidly. Not common but not unusual for them to get these low spikes in temperatures.

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5 hours ago, Xenon said:

Hong Kong recorded a low of 3.1C/~37F yesterday, and this was recorded in the afternoon - around 2:00 pm! Amazing. 

Sanya - at the southern tip of Hainan Island - recorded a high of only 14C/60F (the average LOW is 18.5C/65F)...and Vinh, Vietnam only 8C. Both coastal tropical locations at 18N!

OMG what is happening at Hong Kong !

It's at 22ºN , and the normal low averages for this month are 15ºC... (59ºF) today the maximum is 9ºC, the minimum 2ºC and the following days the maximums will be under the normal minimum temperatures for this season. WUT?! OMG it will be a massive killing for those all tropical species planted there :(

I live in Altea, Spain 38°34'N 0º03'O. USDA zone 11a. Coastal microclimate sheltered by mountains. 
The coconuts shown in my avatar are from the Canary Islands, Spain ! :)

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16 hours ago, pRoeZa* said:

OMG what is happening at Hong Kong !

It's at 22ºN , and the normal low averages for this month are 15ºC... (59ºF) today the maximum is 9ºC, the minimum 2ºC and the following days the maximums will be under the normal minimum temperatures for this season. WUT?! OMG it will be a massive killing for those all tropical species planted there :(

Will it? Perhaps near-freezes like this are frequent enough to allow for tropical plants in the area to survive the occasional chilly episode.

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16 hours ago, pRoeZa* said:

OMG what is happening at Hong Kong !

It's at 22ºN , and the normal low averages for this month are 15ºC... (59ºF) today the maximum is 9ºC, the minimum 2ºC and the following days the maximums will be under the normal minimum temperatures for this season. WUT?! OMG it will be a massive killing for those all tropical species planted there :(

Hong Kong has always experienced occasional low temps in the 30s and 40s over the years.  As others pointed out, despite being just below the Tropic of Cancer, HK's attachment to the continent means it is affected by arctic air masses with resulting amazingly cool temps.  I live on a tropical island in the Pacific less than 1000 ft ASL, and we get routine winter lows in the low 60s even down to the mid-50s.  (hate em).  

Even places like Cairns in Queensland have bottomed out in the 30s and 40s occasionally thanks to the movement of cold air over the Australian continent heading northward.

As a kid, I remember a winter visit to Hong Kong that was anything but hot.

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1 hour ago, CLINODAVE said:

Hong Kong has always experienced occasional low temps in the 30s and 40s over the years.  As others pointed out, despite being just below the Tropic of Cancer, HK's attachment to the continent means it is affected by arctic air masses with resulting amazingly cool temps.  I live on a tropical island in the Pacific less than 1000 ft ASL, and we get routine winter lows in the low 60s even down to the mid-50s.  (hate em).  

Even places like Cairns in Queensland have bottomed out in the 30s and 40s occasionally thanks to the movement of cold air over the Australian continent heading northward.

As a kid, I remember a winter visit to Hong Kong that was anything but hot.

It makes the fact that non-tropical Key West has never been recorded below the 40s even more exceptional.

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4 hours ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

It makes the fact that non-tropical Key West has never been recorded below the 40s even more exceptional.

True indeed.  I wonder if it also highlights the ability of the Gulf of Mexico to moderate the impact of arctic air.  One of my climate books on Hawaii states that cold air masses arriving in Hawaii during winter are sometimes warmed by as much as 100 degrees F by the time they reach the islands.

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14 minutes ago, CLINODAVE said:

True indeed.  I wonder if it also highlights the ability of the Gulf of Mexico to moderate the impact of arctic air.  One of my climate books on Hawaii states that cold air masses arriving in Hawaii during winter are sometimes warmed by as much as 100 degrees F by the time they reach the islands.

Yeah, I don't know. I think it's a combination of factors. If memory serves me right, I believe that Cuba has had lower maximum temps than Key West, which points to more than just the ability of air to be warmed on its way to the tropics. Perhaps its being a small island with the Gulf and the Atlantic surrounding it is the real secret. I don't know. But I am learning that many truly tropical areas regularly hit the 50s once or more every few years, and it seems that the low 40s and high 30s are not impossible when there are no mountains to guard against arctic blasts. I wonder how cold it was in mainland Guangdong if Hong Kong, an honest-to-goodness tropical island, was in the high 30s!

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Guangzhou recorded freezing temperatures and its first snowfall since 1929! 

The eastern coast of Mexico also gets impressive cold - Tampico had something like 48 consecutive hours between 35 and 42 back in 2011. Brownsville, Texas spent an entire day at or below freezing. 

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Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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Placement of weather stations also has a big influence. A lot of criticism of global warming revolved around the growth of "heat islands" around them and the distortion it has created when comparing old records. Weather stations at the foot of mountain slopes will record cold air descending from higher altitudes but a short distance away the figures would be quite different.

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20 hours ago, Xenon said:

Guangzhou recorded freezing temperatures and its first snowfall since 1929! 

The eastern coast of Mexico also gets impressive cold - Tampico had something like 48 consecutive hours between 35 and 42 back in 2011. Brownsville, Texas spent an entire day at or below freezing. 

I have been to Guangzhou and it is very tropical looking, I remember seeing a lots of royal palms, but did not see any coconuts but I was not there long enough to do much searching. I wonder how much damage there was?

Lived in Cape Coral, Miami, Orlando and St. Petersburg Florida.

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The coconut variety found in Southern China is said to be the hardiest by the Coconut germplasm database. I don't think there would have been much damage within their usual range. 

Keith 

Palmetto, Florida (10a) and Tampa, Florida (9b/10a)

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2 hours ago, Zeeth said:

The coconut variety found in Southern China is said to be the hardiest by the Coconut germplasm database. I don't think there would have been much damage within their usual range. 

Hey Keith,

Are they even more cold hardy than the Indian Talls from north central India?  If so, I wish there was some way we could get our hands on some.

John

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