The Observatory predicts Super Typhoon Saola will be closest to Hong Kong on Saturday and has said it will issue a storm warning in the next couple of days.
Downpours lashed the city on Tuesday as Saola edged closer and the weather forecaster said it was centred about 460km (285 miles) southeast of Kaohsiung in Taiwan at 8pm.
Hong Kong will consider issuing warning over Super Typhoon Saola later in week
Hong Kong will consider issuing warning over Super Typhoon Saola later in week
It is predicted to move at around 12km/h (7.5mph) across the Luzon Strait and come within 800km of Hong Kong in the next one to two days.
Saola will be the closest to Hong Kong on Saturday, according to the Observatory.
It is set to come within a distance of 100km from the city.
The forecaster said Saola’s movements remained unpredictable as it might interact with Tropical Storm Haikui, centred about 1,180km southeast of Okinawa.
Haikui, the Chinese name for sea anemones, is expected to move west-northwest or northwest at about 18km/h towards the Ryukyu Islands.
“As Saola may interact with Tropical Cyclone Haikui located to the east of Saola, the subsequent movement of Saola has rather high uncertainty,” the Observatory said.
“It may move westwards along the coastal waters of Guangdong or weaken over the inland areas of southeastern China.”
The Observatory added it would be very hot over Guangdong in the next couple of days, under the influence of the outer subsiding air of Saola, named after a rare and protected species of animal discovered in Vietnam in the 1990s
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The mercury could hit 33 degrees Celsius (91 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, with showers also expected over the weekend.
David Lam Hok-yin, acting senior scientific officer at the Observatory, said that as Saola was still far away, it would not yet directly affect the weather.
“We predict that in the next two to three days, there will be some periods of sunshine and hot weather,” he said.
“For the weekend, we will have to see if Saola’s movement path will be the same as our prediction, but the weather for the weekend will have relatively strong winds and some periods of rain.”
Meanwhile, the forecaster said more than 20mm of rainfall was recorded over parts of the city in the afternoon, with the northern parts of the New Territories experiencing over 90mm.
