April was drier than usual, with the monthly mean relative humidity at 74%, the second lowest on record for April since 1947, the Hong Kong Observatory said today.

Total rainfall in the month was 57.1mm, only about 37% of the norm of 153mm.

The observatory added that the accumulated rainfall in the first four months of the year was 125.5mm, about 42% of the norm of 300.4mm for the same period.

April was also warmer than usual, with a mean temperature of 23.7 degrees Celsius, 0.7 degrees above the norm of 23 degrees.

With plenty of sunshine and weaker winds on April 15, the temperatures at the observatory soared to 33 degrees Celsius that afternoon, the highest of the month. It also marked the earliest occurrence of very hot weather in a year and the second highest maximum temperature for April on record.

On April 20, the maximum temperature logged at the observatory was 30.6 degrees Celsius, making it one of the warmest Easter days on record.

There was no tropical cyclone over the South China Sea and the western North Pacific in April.