Appendix F.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY, HONG KONG,
FOR THE YEAR 1936.
I-GROUNDS, BUILDINGS AND INSTRUMENTS.
The Peak station was re-established during the year, continuous records of wind direction and force, also of pressure and temperature having been maintained since August 1st.
II METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.
2. Automatic records of the temperature of the air and evaporation were obtained with the resistance thermometers and thread recorder. Direction and velocity of the wind were recorded with Beckley and Dines-Baxendall anemographs, rainfall by a Casella pluviograph, sunshine by a Campbell-Stokes universal recorder and barometric pressure by a Marvin barograph. Eye observations of barometric pressure, temperature and cloud were made hourly, and of the direction of cloud motion every three hours. Observations of pilot balloons were made with a Watts 14 inch prismatic theodolite at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m when conditions were favourable.
3. The principal features of the weather in 1936 were:--
(a) an excess of sunshine, the total recorded duration being 2,060 hours, 93 hours above the normal. The weather of October and November was exceptionally fine, accounting for 481 hours of the total.
(b) the typhoon of August 16th-17th; this was the first typhoon seriously affecting the Colony since August 1931. The typhoon passed close to the south of Gap Rock and to the west of Macao. A maximum gust at the rate of 132 miles per hour was recorded and much damage was done, both ashore and afloat.
4. The tracks of 23 typhoons which occurred in the Far East in 1936 are given in a plate which will be included with the Meteorological Results for 1936, now in the press. The following table gives a summary of the meteorological data published monthly in the Government Gazette during the year:-