I live in North Alabama and though it’s not Alaska, it does get down in the teens a handful of nights every year. Occasionally we will get some snow, but most of it splits and heads either North to Tennessee or South towards Birmingham. There’s a saying around town that goes “If you don’t like the weather around here, wait ten minutes and it will change.” I’ve seen snow in May, spent Christmas with temps in the 80’s, and lived through massive ice storms that took years to recover from. Generally though our winters stay in the lower 50’s during the day and only dip down to the upper 30’s at night. Nothing shocking. Just cold temps and a nice frost every few weeks.
Still though we have a winter and I can’t imagine living someplace that doesn’t. Let me rephrase that, I can’t imagine having one and then having it simply disappear over a matter of years. Apparently that is exactly what is happening to the climate in Hong Kong. According to scientists between 1961-1990 Hong Kong winters contained an average of 21 cold days every year. Fast forward merely 10 years and that number was cut by half. Jump another 50 years and winter goes away completely. Don’t just take my word for it, the director of the Hong Kong observatory Lam Chiu-ying says “According to our projections, toward the end of this century … there will be less than one cold day each winter, so winter practically will have disappeared”
Why the drastic change in temperatures? Well there’s that whole global warming thing, but the main reason may be due to Hong Kong’s enormous population. With 7 million people squeezed together in an area roughly 426 square miles, Hong Kong gives new meaning to concrete jungle. When you have that many people constantly building and destroying vegetation, there’s not much chance for the land to cool itself down during the night. Without the change in season, there is some concern as to what changes are exactly in store for Hong Kong. Essentially the climate will change from a semi-tropical to a full-tropical region.
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