HONG KONG, March 17 -- Shun Chi-ming, director of the Hong Kong Observatory said Monday that forecasting of fluctuating weather would inevitably become more challenging in the future.

Shun said at a press briefing of the observatory that the outbreak of abnormal weather events around the world in recent years, such as severe flooding in the United Kingdom, record heat wave in Australia, snow storms in North America, was clear signs that the impact of climate changes was already being felt world widely, and that we would expect more."

Shun said while 2013 was the sixth warmest year on instrumental records, temperatures in Hong Kong exhibited rather large fluctuations in the past few months. "According to some scientific studies, it might be related to the melting of Arctic ice due to global warming. The forecasting of such fluctuating weather would inevitably become more challenging in the future," Shun said.

Regarding the weather outlook for 2014, the observatory expects the annual rainfall of Hong Kong to be normal to below-normal. However, abnormal weather, including rainstorms might still occur from time to time.

For tropical cyclones, the observatory expects the number of tropical cyclones coming within 500 km of Hong Kong to be near normal, between four and seven, and the typhoon season will start in June or later.

"We anticipated an increase in the number of extremely wet years in the 21st century, while the likelihood of drought episodes still remains," Shun added.