Hong Kong weather and the best time to visit

Eighty per cent of the rain falls in five months

The Hong Kong Observatory puts the year's shape in one figure: about 80 per cent of the rain falls between May and September, with June and August typically the wettest months. The table above agrees - June takes 330 mm and August 340, against 25 mm in January and 26 in December.

It also names the good months without hedging. November and December bring "pleasant breezes, plenty of sunshine and comfortable temperatures"; January and February are cloudier, with cold fronts that regularly take urban temperatures below 10 C; March and April are mild but bring "occasional spells of high humidity" with drizzle and fog that can close in visibility. May to August is "hot and humid with occasional showers and thunderstorms", with afternoons often above 31 C.

November to March is what this page picks from the numbers, at 19-24 C by day - and the Observatory's own wording says the front half of that, November and December, is the best of it.

The typhoon season is May to November

The Observatory dates the typhoon season from May to November, with peak activity from July to September. Roughly thirty tropical cyclones form over the western North Pacific in a year and about half reach typhoon strength.

The part worth planning around is not the wind. The Observatory notes that heavy rain from a tropical cyclone can persist for days and that the resulting flooding and landslips can do more damage than the wind itself. For a visitor that means a summer trip carries a real chance of losing a day or two to weather, and of the Peak, the outlying islands and the hiking trails - the things worth coming for - being the first casualties.

Winter has none of that, and the compensation for a January cold front is that it is the clearest air of the year.