HKO explains weather bulletin dissemination

In response to the inadvertent dissemination of some old weather bulletins to the media yesterday, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) today (July 22) explained that the incident was caused by the breakdown of the Observatory's Weather Bulletin Dissemination System from about 5.50am to 7.10am yesterday.

"After discovery of the problem, routine weather bulletins were manually transmitted to the Information Services Department (ISD) by fax for dissemination to the media.

"The system was immediately repaired and automatic dissemination of weather bulletins through the ISD resumed at 11.15am," the spokesman said.

He said that during the system failure, other information dissemination channels such as the HKO website as well as direct links between the HKO and the electronic media operated normally.

"The Observatory regrets any inconvenience caused by the abnormality. It has already quickly developed a new computer programme to track such unusual dissemination of weather information to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents in future," the spokesman said.