Observatory launches real-time weather photos at Victoria Peak

24 November 2016

The Hong Kong Observatory has further enhanced its regional weather information service on its website today (24 November) by adding real-time weather photos captured by a new camera at Victoria Peak, overlooking the western part of Victoria Harbour and the Kowloon peninsula.

The new camera, located at a vantage point at Victoria Peak facing north-northeast, overlooks a number of tourist hotspots including Tsim Sha Tsui, the West Kowloon Cultural District as well as the Central and Western District on Hong Kong Island. It also provides distant views of various well-known mountain peaks and photographic hotspots in Kowloon and the New Territories such as Kowloon Peak, Lion Rock and Tai Mo Shan. Weather photos taken by the camera help monitor the weather conditions such as fog, showers and thunderstorms over the above areas. By making use of the weather photos together with the meteorological data measured by the Observatory’s automatic weather stations at various locations, the public can better grasp weather changes over different regions of Hong Kong.

The Executive Director of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, Mr Joseph Tung, welcomed the Observatory's initiative to add real-time weather photos taken at Victoria Peak on its website, providing more comprehensive weather information service for the tourists. “The Observatory's Regional Weather webpage is very useful to the tourism industry. It has been providing weather information for many tourist spots including Ngong Ping, Stanley, Sheung Shui, Cheung Chau and Pak Tam Chung. The new camera at Victoria Peak will further facilitate the public and tourists to comprehend the weather conditions over the Peak and Victoria Harbour, so as to plan their trips effectively," he said.

Renowned amateur landscape photographer, Mr Man Kam-hoo, said, "Real-time weather photos taken at Victoria Peak help photographers to understand the weather conditions in the vicinity of Kowloon and the Victoria Harbour. They are very useful for planning outdoor photographic activities, in particular the capturing of sea of clouds". He highly commended the Observatory’s initiative to further enhance its regional weather information service.

With the addition of weather photos at Victoria Peak, the number of sites providing weather photos on the Observatory's website has increased to 24. Members of the public can access the weather photos through the Observatory's "Regional Weather in Hong Kong" webpage (www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/ts/index_e_webcam.htm) and mobile platform webpage (www.hko.gov.hk/m/wxphoto.htm). The newly added real-time weather photos at Victoria Peak will also be made available in the next upgrading of "MyObservatory", a smartphone weather service application developed by the Observatory.