HKO and SCHSA urge the public to be prepared for upcoming cold spell

13 December 2013

With cold weather on its way to Hong Kong early next week, the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) and the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association (SCHSA) jointly held a press conference today (December 13) to remind the public to be prepared for the cold spell.

The Assistant Director of the HKO, Dr Cheng Cho-ming, indicated that significant change in weather would be expected over the weekend and early next week as an upper level disturbance and a cold surge will affect southern China. It will be gloomy with rain in Hong Kong on December 15 (Sunday) while temperatures will drop to around 12 degrees in the urban areas and a few degrees lower in the New Territories next Monday evening (December 16). Cold weather will sustain for a few days. Senior citizens and persons with chronic medical conditions should take steps to protect themselves against the potential health impact caused by low temperatures.

The Chief Executive Officer of SCHSA, Ms Irene Leung, urged the public to show their care to the elderly at home and in the neighborhood, and provide timely assistance to them when necessary. The "Safety Services" (including PE Link Service, Safety Phone Service, Mobile Link Service and e-Care Link Service) provided by the SCHSA receives about 2 000 calls on average every day in winter from the elderly seeking assistance. The impact of cold weather on seniors not only surfaces on the cold days. According to the service statistics, the number of calls received in the days after the cold weather was increased by about 10 per cent. Apart from calls for assistance due to health issues, nowadays many elderlies who actively participate in social and outdoor activities also make calls to the SCHSA for weather and other daily life information.

The SCHSA volunteer team produced a series of video clips to share their exclusive warm-keeping tips with the public. The videos can be viewed at the following websites:

HKO Weather Information for Senior Citizens webpage (under "Useful Links", in Chinese only): http://elderly.weather.gov.hk
SCHSA website: https://www.schsa.org.hk

For the latest weather forecast and 7-day weather forecast, please call the Observatory's Dial-a-weather service at 1878 200 or visit the Observatory's website at :
Weather forecast: http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/flw.htm
7-day weather forecast: http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/fnd.htm

The Assistant Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Dr Cheng Cho-ming (far right), and the Chief Executive Officer of the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association, Ms Irene Leung (far left), are pictured with two representatives of the elderly volunteers group.