Weather fails to deliver calendar's Great Heat Day - but not by much
Yesterday's 'Great Heat Day' failed to live up to its name, with the maximum 1.8 degrees Celsius cooler than the day before and the hot weather warning withdrawn at 4.20pm.
But the heat still affected many, including a construction worker in Ma Wan and a cyclist in Sha Tin who collapsed yesterday afternoon. In what could be two heat-related deaths, a man, 64, collapsed and died while playing football in Sham Shui Po at 7.45pm, and a man who collapsed while jogging in Discovery Bay at 9.30pm died later in hospital.
The Labour Department reminded employers they were responsible for providing a safe working environment. 'One of the measures is to increase air flow by using an appropriate ventilation system or air-conditioning system,' senior occupational health officer Ng Kwok-po said.
Apart from supplying cool water, employers could consider providing cooling vests, capable of decreasing the body's temperature, to employees, he said.
A transport workers' union mounted a protest yesterday in opposition to the proposed ban on idling engines. Protesters said the ban would put taxi and minibus drivers' health at risk if they were forced to stay inside their vehicles without air conditioning during summer.
The highest temperature recorded at the Observatory in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday - Great Heat Day in the lunar calendar - was 31.4 degrees, 1.8 degrees lower than Monday's 33.2 degree maximum. Sheung Shui remained the hottest part of Hong Kong, with the mercury hitting 33.9 degrees, one degree lower than on Monday.
The hot weather warning remained in place until 4.20pm and the Observatory forecast the summer heat would continue until Sunday.
Leung Wing-mo, a senior scientific officer at the Observatory, warned people to be careful on hot nights - those when the temperature did not fall below 28 degrees.
By degrees
Temperatures in Hong Kong fell yesterday, despite lunar calendar warnings
The maximum temperature recorded at the Observatory in Tsim Sha Tsui (in degrees Celsius) was: 31.4
