When the mercury dropped to 18 degrees to last Friday, nine degrees lower than Thursday, many kindergartens, primary and secondary schools arranged for students to change from summer to winter uniforms.

Parents formed a long queue outside a uniform store on Cheung Sha Wan Road in Sham Shui Po, according to a picture uploaded by a netizen onto Facebook on Saturday. There were so many parents that the queue reached Maple Street.

After the photo went viral online, other netizens uploaded similar photos of queues outside uniform stores in their neighborhoods, including Mong Kok Flower Market, Shau Kei Wan, Sha Tin and Po Lam.

A parent said he had queued for two hours outside a shop.

The observatory said that the northeast monsoon affecting Guangdong will moderate gradually in the next couple of days with temperatures rising over the region.

It was 22 degrees Celsius on Sunday evening. Temperature is forecast to be 21 to 27 degrees Celsius on Monday, with the weather being mainly fine and dry.

It will be cloudier midweek this week and replenishment of the monsoon is expected to affect southern China in the later part of this week.