Haze on 15 September 2001

It was hazy in Hong Kong today. The visibility was reduced to below 5000m over most parts of Hong Kong this morning. The visibility even fell below 2000m around noon near Chek Lap Kok.

The anticyclone over northern China and the tropical cyclone Nari over the East China Sea together caused generally light northerly air flow over southern China. In Hong Kong, winds were generally light northerly. Solar heating during the day resulted in the setting in of sea breezes, causing some local convergence of air over the territory (see attached figure ) which prevented the dispersion of suspended particulates in the air, resulting in rather low visibility.

For the next couple of days, winds are expected to remain light and mainly from the north. It will continue to be hazy with rather low visibility. Apart from a few isolated showers, the weather will be mainly fine.

Wind directions recorded by automatic weather stations around 2 p.m. 15 September. Winds were generally from the north over areas north of the dotted line but from the west or from the south over areas south of the dotted line, resulting in the convergence of air over the territory.

For the latest weather forecast, please refer to the following web pages:

http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/flw.htm (local weather forecast) and

http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/f5d.htm (5-day weather forecast).