Automatic weather station for Eastern District opened

The Hong Kong Observatory's automatic weather station at the Museum of Coastal Defence was officially opened today (September 17) to provide the public with weather information for the Eastern District. The public can now access the weather information of the district from a variety of means including the Observatory's website and the "Dial-a-Weather" System.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Acting Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Dr Wong Ming-chung, said the setting up of the weather station at the Museum of Coastal Defence under the Observatory's 'One District One Station' initiative would not have been possible without the full support and co-operation of the Eastern District Council and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

"Through this initiative, it is hoped that co-operation with the district communities can be enhanced, allowing more comprehensive weather information to be provided to meet the needs of the public," Dr Wong said.

Also officiating at the ceremony were the Chairman of the Eastern District Council, Ms Ting Yuk-chee, District Officer of the Eastern District, Mr Cho Chun-wah, and Chief Curator of the Museum of History, Mr Ming Kay-chuen.

Welcoming the establishment of the automatic weather station in the district, Ms Ting said that with a population of nearly 600,000 at the Eastern District and major recreational facilities such as the Victoria Park and the Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground, the temperature and rainfall information from the new weather station would enable residents and visitors to be kept abreast of the weather conditions here.

Mr Cho was pleased to see the successful progress of the Observatory's "One District One Station" initiative. "The Eastern District Office will continue to serve as a bridge to facilitate the provision of various government services in the district", he said.

"We are delighted to see the establishment of the automatic weather station in the Museum of Coastal Defence by the Observatory. The real-time temperature information from the station is very useful to visitors of the museum," Mr Ming said.

Equipped with instruments for measuring temperature and rainfall, the automatic weather station at the Eastern District provides the latest temperature readings round-the-clock. The public can access the information from the Observatory's "Regional Weather" webpage at:
http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/ts/display_graph_e.htm?skw&menu=otherwxi&rwx&addbar or PDA webpage at: http://pda.hko.gov.hk/regione_skw.htm. They can also call the Observatory's "Dial-a-Weather" hotline at 187 8200.

The rainfall information from the station is used to plot the rainfall distribution map of Hong Kong (website: http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/rainfall/isohyete.shtml).