ABSTRACT
Hong Kong went through a period of major urbanization during the past half century. Much more land than before is now under concrete. Clusters of tall buildings have invaded into previously open country. At the same time, the increase in population as well as per capita energy consumption in this affluent society has meant the burning of much more coal and petrol than before, with the attendant emissions of gases and particulates. The atmosphere overlying Hong Kong cannot escape interacting with these changes. In the process of doing so, the climate in Hong Kong has changed. Leung et al (2004, a) have documented the long-term changes in various observed parameters up to 2002. This chapter extends the data series to 2005 and also looks at a couple of aspects not covered before.
