Heatwave evaporates as tropical storm brings wind and rain

The heatwave that enveloped the city for the past week has been swept away by strong winds and squally showers thanks to Tropical Storm Mujigae, now heading towards Hainan Island.

The storm entered Hong Kong's 800 kilometre alert zone yesterday morning after hitting the Philippines, where four children were among five people who died in flooding and landslides. The Observatory hoisted typhoon signal No1 at 4.35am, and 10 hours later the signal was upgraded to No3.

A further upgrade was unlikely as the storm was weak and a long distance from Hong Kong, the Observatory said.

'Raising the signal to No8 is rather unlikely while the strong wind signal is not expected to last long today,' a spokesman said.

At 9pm, Mujigae was 360km south-southwest of Hong Kong, moving west at 18km/h. It was expected to land in Hainan this morning and weaken into a tropical depression.

Bad weather affected most parts of Hong Kong yesterday, with increasing wind speeds. In Sai Kung and Waglan Island, the mean wind speed hit 46km/h and 70km/h respectively.