Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Hong Kong’s weather forecaster has promised to continue developing the tools it uses to predict typhoons and rainstorms.
The Hong Kong Observatory uses AI forecasting models, which gave useful information before the record-breaking downpour earlier this month.
He Yuheng, acting senior scientific officer at the Hong Kong Observatory, said the models successfully predicted the development of a curved cloud called a rainband near Guangdong.
This information was captured an entire week before the heavy downpour that became Hong Kong’s second-longest black rainstorm warning.
On that day, August 5, the forecaster measured 358.8mm of rainfall at its headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui. That is the highest daily rainfall in August since records began in 1884.
The scientific officer noted that the models were not completely accurate in pinpointing where the rain would fall. But the information they provided was helpful in that day’s rainstorm forecast.
The scientific officer also said that the Observatory would improve its systems’ ability to predict a typhoon or tropical cyclone’s path and intensity.
