The “true colours” of a rainband

The "true colours" of a rainband (25 May 2021)

"A rainband over the Pearl River Estuary is bringing showers to the region". This is how sometimes rainbands were described in the Observatory’s weather report. We usually “see” how a rainband looks like in the weather radar image. However, the rainband over the south of Lantau Island on 25 May 2021 was a little different. Its "true colours" were clearly discernible on the weather photos captured by the camera at the peak of Tai Mo Shan looking towards the southwest.

The weather photo (upper) taken at Tai Mo Shan at about 11:25 a.m. on the aforesaid date was compared with the weather radar image (lower) at similar time. Both were able to capture the rainband over the south of Lantau Island.

The animation sequence of the weather photos of Tai Mo Shan on that day shows that the cumulonimbus clouds gathered into a line while growing continuously in height, bringing showers to the region.