Outdoor workers and sports lovers could be better protected from lightning strikes under an online initiative launched by the Observatory to plot strikes.
The system, available in June, will collect information about lightning across the Pearl River Delta, but it will not replace the existing thunderstorm warning system.
Lightning strikes would be plotted on a map that will be regularly updated online. It would be accurate to within about 500 metres.
Monitoring stations have already been set up in Hong Kong, Macau and San Shui in Guangdong to gauge electric waves from lightning to determine the location of a strike.
The system will not provide forecasts of where the lightning will occur but can show trends in the movements of the lightning so that people outdoors can decide whether to head for cover.
'In most cases, there are patterns to lightning. But this will not tell if lightning is going to strike over your head,' said Observatory director Lam Chiu-ying.
