ENG-1954 — Page 256

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954

the region. Excellent co-operation is given by ships at sea with the result that weather conditions over the China Sea are usually known in as much detail as, for instance, over the North Atlantic but the absence of weather information from the mainland to the north continues to be a severe handicap, and it is fortunate that typhoons never approach from landward.

The provision of storm warnings has always been one of the most important functions of the Observatory since its foundation in 1884. Warnings are transmitted at 6-hourly intervals to shipping whenever a tropical storm or typhoon is located in the northern part of the China Sea or in the coastal waters of China as far north as Shanghai. When the Colony itself is threatened the local storm warning system is brought into use, and warnings are given as wide a distribution as possible by means of visual signals, telephone, Radio Hong Kong and Rediffusion.

During the year a Colonial Development and Welfare Scheme for the establishment of an upper-air reporting station in Hong Kong was completed by the installation of radar wind-finding equipment at the radio- sonde station attached to the Observatory. Routine observations of upper winds, previously carried out by the pilot-ballon method, are now made four times daily by radar, while a radio-sonde ascent is made each day to determine the temperature and humidity aloft.

In addition to its meteorological activities, the Observatory maintains seismological observations and a time service.

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