Hong Kong braced for Super El Niño, warns of extreme weather

Meteorologists forecast a Super El Niño developing between October and December this year, with sea‑surface temperatures in the central‑eastern Pacific rising unusually fast. Dr Andie Au‑Yeung Yee‑man, a lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, warned that Hong Kong can expect warmer, wetter winters and a higher likelihood of record‑breaking heat over the next one to two years. She noted that the two previous Super El Niño events in 2015 and 2023 brought extreme rainfall, severe flooding and the strongest typhoon signals for the territory. NOAA projections suggest the phenomenon could persist into next year, increasing the risk of short‑duration cloudbursts that will test Hong Kong’s drainage and flood‑control systems. While the total number of tropical cyclones may not rise, storms are likely to form farther east, linger over warm waters longer and intensify more readily, with possible tracks toward Japan or Taiwan before approaching the South China Sea.