Sharing of weather photos in the "Community Weather Information Network"

5 March 2010

Around themiddle of February and early March this year, Hong Kong was under the influence of a warm and humid maritime airstream. Many regions were covered by fog and the visibility at some places had dropped below 1000 metres.

The "Community Weather Information Network" (Co-WIN) received some photos of the foggy episode from teachers, parents and students. The photos were taken at the eastern and western part of Victoria Harbour, coastal waters near Ma Wan and Shing Mun River in Shatin(see
Figures 1 to 5). More interesting weather photos have been uploaded to Co-WIN's website at https://weather.ap.polyu.edu.hk/secure/giyararii/index.php?cat=6.

To encourage students of member schools to pay more attention to daily weather changes, Co-WIN appeals to students and parents to keep watch of the weather around their schools and homes, and take photos to record interesting weather phenomena. The photos can then be uploaded to the Co-WIN's website for sharing with others. This should greatly arouse students' interest in weather.

In Hong Kong, fog mostly occurs in spring. To understand more about the formation of fog, please visit the Observatory website at: http://www.hko.gov.hk/education/edu01met/wxphe/ele_foge.htm.

The Co-WIN is a collaborative effort of the Hong Kong Observatory, the Department of Applied Physics of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong Joint-school Meteorological Association. The aim is to gather weather information collected by weather stations in schools and organizations, and make it available on the Internet for use by the public after carrying out appropriate data quality assurance.

Members of the public can access the network's website of "Community Weather Information Network" (http://weather.ap.polyu.edu.hk/index.php).

The website has also been linked to the Observatory's homepage at http://www.weather.gov.hk/contente.htm.

All schools and organizations are welcome to join the network. For enquiries, please contact:

Mr. TSE Wai Ming
Senior Experimental Officer
Hong Kong Observatory
Telephone: (852) 2926 8346
Email: cowin@hko.gov.hk

Figure 1 The eastern part of the Victoria Harbour was covered by fog at around 8 a.m.
on 27 February 2010. (By courtesy of Mr. Chow Kam Ming, teacher of Elegantia College)


Figure 2 The coastal waters near Ma Wan were covered by fog at around 5 p.m.
on 27 February 2010. (By courtesy of Mr. Choi Wai Kit,
teacher of Shak Chung Shan Memorial Catholic Primary School)


Figure 3 Shing Mun River, Shatin was covered by fog at around 8 a.m.
on 28 February 2010. (By courtesy of Mr. Lam Chun Fat,
parent of Baptist Lui Ming Choi Primary School)


Figure4 Fog already cleared up at Shing Mun River, Shatin at around 4 p.m.
on 28 February 2010.(By courtesy of Mr. Lam Chun Fat,
parent of Baptist Lui Ming Choi Primary School)


Figure5 Thewestern part of the Victoria Harbour was covered by fog
on10 February 2010. (By courtesy of Mr. Chui Tak Yi)