Ordinary Gweilo

As you may have noticed, I have a strange fascination with Hong Kong’s bewildering array of weather warnings. 

Yesterday we had a typhoon pass by Hong Kong.  Although it’s initial track was towards Hong Kong, it then turned west and was always heading away from here.  The no.1 (standby) signal was raised on Tuesday afternoon, and that should have been the end of it.  However, the Observatory issued the no.3 (strong wind) signal yesterday morning, followed by all the other warnings they could think of (Torrential rain causes widespread flooding): 

Between 11.45am and 12.15pm, the landslip, thunderstorm and red rainstorm warnings were all issued alongside the No 3 signal. The Observatory said this had never happened before. The previous record was set in 1999 when a landslip and rainstorm warning was issued alongside a typhoon signal, an Observatory spokesman said.

The No 3 signal was raised for four hours, from 10.35am to 2.40pm. The only time it was raised for less than that, without a No 8 signal being raised, was on July 1, 1966, when it went up for one hour.

An Observatory spokesman said that although a tropical cyclone brought heavy rain, the winds were not particularly strong, but a sudden change in wind direction justified the decision to raise the No 1 signal to a No 3 signal.

"The tropical depression was edging west-northwest, but it changed direction to northwest. That meant that Hong Kong would be affected as winds would be east to south easterly," scientific officer Tam Cheuk-ming said.

The winds were not particularly strong, but they thought they would raise the "Strong Wind" signal.  Good thinking, that man.