Using surface air temperature observations from 1901 to 2020, this study compared the warming trends of Shanghai and Hong Kong over a period of 120 years. The statistical results reveal the following: (1) The average temperatures of the two cities underwent fluctuating increases during the past 120 years, with linear warming rates of 0.23 °C/decade in Shanghai and 0.13 °C/decade in Hong Kong. (2) The fluctuation ranges of maximum temperature in the two cities were considerably higher than those of mean temperature. Moreover, in both cities, the annual mean maximum temperature decreased during a phase of more than a decade. The fluctuation ranges of minimum temperature were smaller, whereas the linear increases were higher than those for the mean temperature. (3) The diurnal temperature ranges (DTRs) of the two cities decreased; a certain phase of the decreases in DTR in the two cities was caused by decreases in the maximum temperature. (4) At a certain stage of urban development, owing to the shading effect of new high-rise buildings, the solar shortwave radiation reaching the Earth's surface decreased, and anthropogenic heat generated by the energy consumption of buildings and urban human activities at that time was not sufficient to make up for the reduced shortwave radiation. This result may have led to the declines in the maximum temperature experienced by both cities. (5) Currently, the number of hot days and extremely hot days in the two cities has increased significantly compared with that a century ago, indicating that climate warming has an adverse impact on human settlements.
Keywords: Hong Kong; Shanghai; local climate; urban climate; urbanisation; warming.