Hong Kong set to avoid lashing by tropical storm Nepartak
City expecting a rainy couple of weeks, after last month’s record-breaking heatwave
The chances of Hong Kong being directly affected by the tropical storm massing off the Philippines remain slim – for now – but the city will start the week with more see-sawing of weather patterns of showers, sunshine and isolated thunderstorms.
Nepartak, upgraded from tropical depression to tropical storm on Sunday, was about 2,000km east of the southern Philippine province of Mindanao by Sunday afternoon.
Observatory senior scientific officer Chan Sai-tick said the storm was forecast to move northwest in the direction of Luzon, the country’s main island in the north, and towards Taiwan by Thursday or Friday.
While it was still too early to know the storm’s ultimate course and if it would even move into the South China Sea, Chan said data did not suggest a threat to the city.
“The storm’s path currently suggests it will not have a direct impact on Hong Kong. But we will continue to monitor its movement,” Chan said.
But even without a typhoon, an active southerly airstream continued to bring showers to the coast of southern China. The next few days will see cloudy skies with sudden outbreaks of rain intertwined with sunny intervals.
By midweek, the weather is forecast to become fine and very hot before again being dominated by rain next week.
Chan said such weather was characteristic of the seasonal weather systems that affect Hong Kong in the summer.
The strengthening of the southwest monsoon in the first half of June brought wind, showers and thunderstorms for about a week but this was surpassed by the establishment of the subtropical ridge over southern China, turning the weather very hot and sunny.
A heatwave gripped the city for nine days in the latter half of the month under light winds and prolonged sunshine.
For four days, between June 24 and 27, daily maximum temperatures recorded at the Observatory in Tsim Sha Tsui were above a sizzling 35 degrees Celsius.
That broke the previous record for three consecutive days, which was set in 1963.
Earlier this year, the Observatory’s director, Shun Chi-ming, reiterated his concerns over climate change, warning of further extreme and inclement weather events and hotter temperatures ahead.
