Hong Kong likely to escape season's first super typhoon - but city will swelter

The Observatory warns that the storm is expected to push temperatures higher in the city

Reading Time:3 minutes

A view of Super Typhoon Neoguri captured from the International Space Station. Photo: Reid Wiseman/Twitter

Published: 10:15am, 6 Jul 2014Updated: 1:33pm, 7 Jul 2014

The first super typhoon of the season is expected to hit Japan on Wednesday - and could make life a little more uncomfortable for Hongkongers too, after a record-breaking hot June.

The city is almost certain to escape the impact of the Super Typhoon Neoguri, which is expected to swing towards the south of Japan, but the hot weather of the last few days is likely to continue under its influence.

Neoguri, which means raccoon in Korean, is described by the Observatory as a 'super typhoon', meaning it has sustained wind speeds of 185km/h or above.

A mother helps her child get a drink at a water fountain in Tsim Sha Tsui during yesterday's hot weather. Photo: Felix Wong

A statement on the Observatory website, updated this morning, read: "At 8am Super Typhoon Neoguri was centred about 660 kilometres south of Okinawa. It is forecast to move northwest or north-northwest at about 22 kilometres per hour towards the seas east of Taiwan and the vicinity of the Ryukyu Islands."

Observatory scientific officer Tam Yee-ting said there is "little chance" that Neoguri will hit Hong Kong as storms usually move along the edge of the subtropical ridge, which is off the coast of Japan and Taiwan.

But Hong Kong will feel the impact as the typhoon's outer air mass brings more hot weather to an already stifling July. Temperatures today and tomorrow are again expected to tip 33C.