Forecasting tropical cyclone tracks up to 3 days ahead

The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) announces today that predicted tropical cyclone tracks in graphical form up to 3 days ahead are now available from its website.

Since Tropical Storm Koni has entered the South China Sea and may necessitate the issuance of local tropical cyclone warning signals later, for those who have to plan ahead for their activities will find this information a handy reference.

The HKO started issuing 72-hour tropical cyclone forecast positions in its warnings for the shipping community for the area bounded by 10N to 30N, 105E to 125E. This is a major expansion of the HKO tropical cyclone warning service since 1978 when 48-hour forecast positions were first introduced. The enhanced service is prompted by increasing demand from the user community and enabled by the progress in numerical models in the forecasting of tropical cyclones.

Major clients of the Observatory's special weather services welcome this enhancement. In particular, container terminal operators consider that the advance information on the expected movement of tropical cyclones facilitates comprehensive contingency preparations related to their operations in tropical cyclone situations.

The public can view the warning bulletin and the forecast track from the following web-pages whenever a tropical cyclone is located within the above mentioned warning area:

Warning bulletin:
http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/tcswarn.htm

Forecast track:
http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/tc_pos.htm

For enquiries on this press release, please contact Mrs. Hilda Lam at 2926 8451 during office hours.