Announcement of Results and Award Presentation for the Hong Kong Observatory Weather Icon Design Contest

To commemorate the 10^th anniversary of its Internet website, the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) launched a design contest for weather icons in the beginning of the year, inviting members of the public to propose weather icons for use in the HKO Internet website. The objective of the contest is to encourage participation to promote effective communication of weather information to the public. Mr. LAM Chiu-ying, Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, announced the results of the contest and presented awards to the contest winners at the HKO Headquarters today.

The contest consisted of 3 categories of weather icons (each comprising 3 icons). HKO received over 400 entries, and 24 were selected as winning designs. The list of winners and their designs are posted on the following web page: http://www.weather.gov.hk/en/weather-icon-contest/resulte.htm

Mr. Lam said, "The HKO website was first established in 1996 and among the first few government departments that made use of the Internet to deliver service to the public. In the past 10 years, the average number of monthly visits to the HKO website has increased more than 1000-fold. The latest figure is some 50 million page hits a month. HKO website is well received by the public, reflecting the intimate relationship of weather and our daily lives. The use of internet technology greatly enhances the effectiveness of weather information dissemination. The website has proved to be the most cost-effective means of disseminating large quantities of ever evolving weather information to a large number of individual users."

After the assessment, the judging panel commented that graphics is a universal language. Weather icons by using simple and elegant graphics to communicate abstract weather information are the culmination of art, science and human innovation. It is worthwhile to continue the development of the set of weather icons.

When being asked on the feeling of winning the contest, Ms. Cho Wing-yan said, "This activity not only provides room for creativity for the citizens. More importantly, it can enhance participation of the public. However, the public generally lacks a comprehensive understanding of the various weather icons. If these icons could be used more extensively in other media besides web pages, the impact would be even greater."

Another winner, Ms. Cheung Ho-yan added, "First of all I thank the HKO for presenting me the award of merit. To me, it is not only a contest of artistic expression but also one of wisdom. Participants have to use graphics to represent abstract weather information, without the use of words. It is a very mind boggling task. I decided to use the Victoria Harbour as the background with weather phenomena such as fog and haze superimposed. In this way, people could remember this famous icon of Hong Kong."

Another winner, Mr. Lai Kwan-yin said, "I recalled that foggy weather would greatly affect motor vehicle drivers. So I decided to use street lamps as the theme of design. I was rather excited to receive the award!"

Mr. Lam also said, "The weather icon design contest allows direct participation of the public in the presentation, formulation and stipulation of weather information. It is a rare opportunity for HKO to interact with the public and incorporate the wisdom of the community, to improve on our weather information services."

For further queries related to this press release, please contact Dr. Yeung King-kay, Senior Scientific Officer of the Hong Kong Observatory at 2926 8355 (email: kkyeung@hko.gov.hk).

Mr. LAM Chiu-ying, Director of the Hong Kong Observatory and the contest winners