1999
The continued low temperature combined with fall of rain from an apparently warmer stratum of air above resulted in the formation of ice varying in quantity from a thin coating on the upper leaves of pine trees growing at 500 feet above sea level to a thick encasement of perfectly transparent solid ice of 51⁄8 inches in circumference on the blades and bents of grass at the summit of Victoria Peak. The grass bents themselves, which were the foundation on which the ice accumulated, were not more than an eighth of an inch in diameter yet the formation of ice was so gradual that with the enormous accumulation of ice, which became its own support, the bents retained their natural upright, or but slightly pendent position. The large accumulations of ice were on the windward side of the hill where rain drifted, but even on the lea side the average coating of ice was about 3 inches in circumference.
Evergreen shrubs and trees carried on their leaves solid coverings of ice 3⁄8 of an inch in thickness. The great weight of this ice caused the branches of trees to assume a pendent form, the strain in many cases causing the limbs to snap off with a crash. All vegetation throughout the hill regions of the Colony was thus covered with ice, as were also most other objects. Telegraph and telephone wires from Victoria Gap upwards were covered with ice 5⁄8 of an inch in thickness, and, in addition, carried icicles as close as they could be packed side by side. This caused many of the telephone wires to break, and the iron post at Victoria Gap which supported them was snapped off a few inches above the ground.
Yesterday, the first part of the report by Mr. Charles Ford on the Great Frost of January, 1893, was given. The report continues:
The windward sides of the walls of the look-out house at the Peak were from top to bottom covered with perfectly transparent ice 3⁄4 of an inch in thickness.
All the hills on the mainland and Lantao island were likewise white with ice, one of the hills (3,147 feet) of Lantao having what appeared to be snow for some few hundreds of feet down from its summit. As early as the evening of the 13th, January the summit of Taimoshan (about 3,300 feet) on the mainland had assumed a whitish appearance, presumably from ice or snow.
"The effect of the extremely low temperature on vegetation has been disastrous," commented the report, and in an appendix the names of plants, chiefly exotic, in the Botanic Gardens which had suffered more or less were given. In another appendix were enumerated the indigenous plants which were injured. The report adds:
"The damages in the gardens consist chiefly in the injury or destruction of leaves, but some plants are quite killed, these being natives of much warmer regions than Hongkong. Many of the decorative plants which were not killed will be months before they can regain their ornamental appearance."
Every possible precaution was adopted to minimise the effect of the cold. The plant-houses, which are provided with screens merely to produce shade, were all matted in and the roofs covered with straw. In spite of these precautions, however, many plants suffered very severely. Of ferns in the houses Polypodium heracleum and Adiantum tetradactylon suffered most, other kinds being but little affected.