ROYAL OBSERVATORY
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Hong Kong lies some distance away from the circum-Pacific seismic belt and serious earthquakes are almost unknown. How- ever in most years there are a few tremors that can just be felt by people in favourable locations. During 1963 there were three such tremors.
Radioactivity. The Royal Observatory monitors the general level of radioactivity in the Colony by making routine measurements of the beta-activity of fallout, airborne particles near the ground, rainfall and ordinary tap water.
Other Activities. The observatory acts in an advisory capacity in the planning of a great many projects that may be affected by meteorological conditions. The effect of winds on structures, the design of drains and catchments, the recovery of drifting ships, the effect of smoke pollution, evaporation from reservoirs, airline schedules and insurance claims are typical examples. The observa- tory also issues a yearly booklet of astronomical tables for use in the Colony. (Details of research undertaken by the Royal Observa- tory are given in chapter 21).
THE YEAR'S WEATHER
Weather records are broken quite frequently but it is very seldom that they have such a dramatic effect on the life of the entire community; the drought and accompanying water crisis (described at length in chapter 16) was front page news almost continuously throughout the year. There was sub-normal rainfall every single month since the dry weather began in October 1962.
At the beginning of the year the weather was monotonously fine and sunny. There was some frost in the New Territories during January and a record number of hours of sunshine was recorded. The relative humidity stayed well below normal and rainfall was negligible in February and March. April and May broke all pre- vious records for the lowest rainfall, and May was also the hottest and sunniest May since observations began. The maximum tem- peratures of 95.9°F on 31st May and 96.1°F on 1st June were the highest ever recorded in these two months.
May is normally a wet month in Hong Kong, and the wettest month on record occurred in May 1889 when there were 48.84 inches of rainfall. May 1963 produced the phenomenally low
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