Hong Kong has been yearning for a downpour to ease the heat - and with good reason. As well as bringing some of the hottest temperatures on record, this year has also been one of the driest. Rainfall in the first six months was about a third less than usual, and the 26th-driest period in 122 years of record-keeping. According to figures released by the Hong Kong Observatory, 668.3mm of rain fell in the half-year, 32.7 per cent less than the average of 993.1mm. Last month, usually the wet season, was especially dry, with just 144.7mm - 62 per cent less than the normal 376mm. It was the 10th-driest June on record. The observatory said earlier this year there was a 60 per cent chance that this year's rainfall would be near the average. 'If we are to catch up with the annual mean, we need more rain from typhoons in the coming months,' said Leung Wing-mo, senior scientific officer at the observatory. Typhoon Mindulle had been expected to bring rain last week, but it changed course and hit Taiwan. A spokesman for the Water Supplies Department said the dry weather had had little impact on the local water supply. He said the 17 reservoirs were 71 per cent full, slightly over the storage figures at the same time last year. 'There is no cause for alarm so far as we still have a stable supply from the Dongjiang across the border,' he said. In the first five months of the year, Hong Kong took about 349 million cubic metres of water from Guangdong, which is 8 million cubic metres less than last year.
