Hong Kong issues amber rainstorm warning ahead of heavy showers

The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning at 7pm on Sunday as heavy showers exceeding 30mm an hour were expected.

But the city can let its guard down over the threat of a typhoon at the start of the week, as the weather forecaster has predicted a tropical cyclone off the eastern coast of Vietnam will move away from the city.

The Observatory said on Sunday the city could expect hot weather on Monday followed by cloudy skies, showers and isolated thunderstorms in the next couple of days.

“The tropical depression over the central part of the South China Sea will be moving towards central Vietnam, and will keep a distance of more than 800km [497 miles] from Hong Kong,” Fan Man-hei, the Observatory’s scientific officer, told the Post.

He said it was “very much unlikely” to hit the city.

“But under the combined effect of the subtropical ridge and the tropical cyclone, winds will strengthen slightly and there will be more showers gradually over the coast of Guangdong in the next couple of days,” Fan said.

The weather forecaster last Friday said satellite images showed “two sets of obvious convective cloud clusters in the central and southern South China Sea and waters east of the Philippines”, which, according to some computer models, could form an area of low pressure or a tropical cyclone.