Hong Kong Observatory

The Hong Kong Observatory was established in 1883, mainly to provide
scientific information for the safe navigation of ships. Since then, it has
evolved in line with community needs providing services and studies on
weather forecasting, hydrometeorology, climatology, physical
oceanography, aviation and marine meteorology, and radiation monitoring
and assessment. The Observatory also operates the official time standard
for Hong Kong, provides basic astronomical information and maintains a
seismological monitoring network.

Weather forecasts and warnings of hazardous weather are the
responsibility of the Central Forecasting Office at the Observatory's
headquarters. Marine weather forecasts cover the South China Sea and
East China Sea. Forecasts and advice are also provided for the civil
aviation, business and industrial communities, port and container terminal
operators and the oil-prospecting industry.

Whenever Hong Kong is threatened by tropical cyclones, frequent
warnings with advice on the necessary precautions to take are widely
disseminated. A colour-coded rainstorm warning system is activated to
warn people of serious road flooding and traffic disruption. The
Observatory also warns of thunderstorms, floodings, landslips, fire
danger, strong monsoon and frost.

Weather programmes for the public are presented regularly on television
by the Observatory's meteorologists. During adverse weather, live
interviews and briefings are given over the radio and television.

The Observatory operates a Dial-a-Weather automatic telephone
answering system providing hourly updates of weather forecasts,
temperature readings, warnings or tropical cyclone information. About
63 000 calls were received on an average day in 1997, totalling around
23 million calls for the year. The Observatory maintains a home page on
the Internet to provide the public with the latest weather forecast and
information on climate, tides and earthquakes as well as satellite imageries.
The number of visits to the Observatory's Home page exceeded 200 000
calls per month.

Weather information is also provided to commercial communications and
paging services which make it available on various electronic media. The
Observatory produces a variety of meteorological and climatological
publications, most of which are obtainable from the department
free-of-charge.

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