wooded ravines and scrub-covered spurs, where wild boar and barking deer are plentiful, slope steeply upwards to a bold and lonely skyline. The island of Cheung Chau, although quite small in area, maintains a thriving community and is an important fishing centre. Another still smaller island, Ping Chau, is the site of a match factory. Most of the remaining islands are very small, the smallest inhabited island being Ngai Ying Chau with an area of 8 acres and a population of three and sometimes five.
Warm
The climate is sub-tropical and is governed to a large extent by the monsoons, the winter being normally cool and dry and the summer hot and humid. The north-east monsoon sets in during October and persists until April. The early winter is the most pleasant time of the year, the weather being generally sunny and the atmosphere dry. Later in the winter cloud is more frequent, though rainfall remains slight; in March and April long spells of dull overcast weather may occur. southerly winds may temporarily displace the cool north-east monsoon during this period and under these conditions fog and low cloud are common. From May until August, the prevailing wind is the "south-west" monsoon, a warm damp southerly or south-easterly wind blowing from equatorial regions. Winds are more variable in summer than in winter, for the south-west monsoon is frequently interrupted. The weather is persistently hot and humid and is often cloudy and showery with frequent thunderstorms. The summer is the rainy season, three quarters of the annual rainfall falling between the months of May and September. The mean annual rainfall is 84.26 inches.
From June to October Hong Kong is most liable to be affected by typhoons, although they are sometimes experienced before and after this period. A typhoon whose centre passes over or near the Colony is accompanied by winds of hurricane force, resulting in widespread damage on sea and land. Although the loss of life on such occasions among the boat people, which in olden days was very heavy, is now minimized by an elaborate system of warnings, there are always a number of boats which fail to get to the specially constructed typhoon shelters in time. Sixteen such disasters have occurred in the last sixty-four years. Spells of bad weather and heavy rain and strong winds are normally experienced several times in each summer owing to the passage of typhoons at varying distances from the Colony.
The mean monthly temperature
temperature varies from 59°F in February to 82°F in July, the average for the year being 72°F. The temperature does not frequently rise above 95°F, and very seldom falls below 40°F. In spring and summer the humidity is persistently high, at times exceeding 95%, while in the early winter it may fall as low as 20%. The mean monthly duration of sunshine varies from 94 hours in March to 217 hours in October.
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