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Maximum sustained winds can also be estimated by usingenhancement techniques which reveal cloud features and thecloud-top temperatures near the centre of the cyclone.Enhancement techniques also enable sea surface temperaturesto be mapped from infrared pictures. This data isuseful in helping to forecast sea fog and the development oftropical cyclones.It also reveals ocean currents and sea surface temperaturefronts where certain species offish tend to congregate.Earthquakes:Each year, about 10 000 earthquakes are recordedthroughout the world. The majority cause no damage, butabout 1 000 are strong enough to have serious consequencesif they occur near populated areas.Hong Kong's terrain indicates that in prehistory theremust have been violent earthquakes associated with theformation of hills. However, Chinese records of earthquakes,collected over many centuries, show that the wholeof Guangdong Province has had only some 30 destructiveearthquakes since 288AD, an average of about one every 60years.On average, Hong Kong residents feel about threeearthquakes each year, but the tremors are not severe. Theearthquake risk in Hong Kong is low and significantly lessthan that in areas such as parts of China, Japan, Taiwan andthe Philippines.In more recent times, the highest intensity of anearthquake felt in Hong Kong was of magnitude 6 to 7 onthe Modified Mercalli scale.This was the earthquake of 13 February 1918 whichoccurred near Shantou (Swatow), about 320 kilometres eastnortheast of Hong Kong.The earthquake was clearly felt in Hong Kong, butfortunately did little real damage. The China Mail reportedon Thursday, 14 February:Further earth tremors were noticed last night, some residents ofthe Colony counting as many as Jive distinct shocks.115
The shock occurring yesterday afternoon appears to have donesome slight damage to property. St. John's Cathedral, weunderstand, was badly shaken, but the damage done was slight.The following day, the China Mail noted that whileHong Kong had escaped serious damage, Swatow had not.Under the headline 'Great Disaster at Swatow' the newspaperreported:The earthquake felt in the Colony on Wednesday had its centrefurther up the coast whence the reports yet to hand go to showthat it has taken the form of a great disaster.Unfortunately at Swatow something in the nature of acataclysm occurred in that city on Wednesday last ...practically every house in the native quarter of the town isdemolished and the European quarter has also sufferedsufficiently badly as to probably render it necessary to rebuildmost if not all the houses.On Saturday 16 February, the China Mail devoted itsleading article to a discussion of the history of earthquakes inChina, concluding with this comment:.,. South China, we believe, has never been visited before bysuch an earthquake as that just experienced at Swatow ...seismologists who have placed South China outside theearthquake zone have evidently a lot to learn on the subjectyet.The Royal Observatory operates a network of instrumentsto monitor earth tremors:Short period seismographs monitoring earthquakes forthe Regional Seismological Network for Southeast Asia;Long period seismographs as part of the WorldwideStandardised Seismograph Network.Seismographs are instruments used to measure and recordearth movements. A seismograph consists of a seismometer,an amplifier, recorder and timing system. The seismometerdetects the relative motion between a free mass - whichtends to remain at rest - and a frame which moves with theearth. This motion is converted into an electric currentwhich is amplified and recorded as a seismogram.116
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UNIVERSITY OFHQ,NG KONG>**"/////»I
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The Royal Observatory, Hong KongJIM
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The effect of climate on human cond
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IntroductionIifc on earth is possib
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Theories had been developed: as ear
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Then came another important scienti
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thirty feet high, huge grotesque lo
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Ancient Chinese astronomical instru
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Chapter 1KSJSJOJ/ do think that, of
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work of the observatory made no pro
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its physical observations of the ph
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period. The main building was recta
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on metal pipe frames, were too ligh
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Blackhead's Hill (Signal Hill) and
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many previous storms when the wind
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coast ports and the police in fact
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European assistants, at least one o
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... Mr. da Silva has resigned. . .
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few minutes' warning of one of the
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water height by up to several metre
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I he early European traders, mercha
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the sun's rays in tropical climates
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coast; trees are broken or rooted u
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Professor S. Wells Williams, anothe
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We had a striking example in Hong K
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Hong Kong lies just within the trop
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Chapter 3OFCOTWETSEverybody talks a
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The sun's disc had a diameter on th
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Such detailed rules failed to impre
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the periods before winter droughts
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crossed into Hong Kong, followed by
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inlet of Tola Harbour in the New Te
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The war in Europe had spurred the d
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Inset: The backs of these cigarette
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It 8 am on 8 December 1941, 12 Japa
Page 81 and 82: The records are all in pencil, neat
Page 83 and 84: The civil staff was soon put to the
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Page 87 and 88: temperature down to 3J°C at the Ob
Page 89 and 90: moving directly towards Hong Kong,
Page 91 and 92: If the weather in 1965 was comparat
Page 93 and 94: since Typhoon Shirley in 1968. It h
Page 95 and 96: Radar observations early on 26 July
Page 97 and 98: almost as accurately as from a reco
Page 99 and 100: Waves smash over the praya at Kenne
Page 101 and 102: Chapter 5CLICKINGCCFTHEAt the prese
Page 103 and 104: November and December are normally
Page 105 and 106: move them a substantial distance in
Page 107 and 108: .. . wind blowing through the long
Page 109 and 110: for a series of fine weather and ca
Page 111 and 112: The typhoon of Saturday September 2
Page 113 and 114: Above: How the 1874 typhoon destroy
Page 115 and 116: Above: Aftermath of the 1923 blow w
Page 117 and 118: its of storm water which could be s
Page 119 and 120: he splitting of time into microscop
Page 121 and 122: The Third Congress of the World Met
Page 123 and 124: small craft. It includes 24-hour ar
Page 125 and 126: much of the Observatory's work invo
Page 127 and 128: The marine meteorology section of t
Page 129 and 130: The water shortage having become ve
Page 131: The signal was received by a helica
Page 135 and 136: The Royal Observatory is part of tw
Page 137 and 138: acquired its own radar, which was u
Page 139 and 140: grass. Soil temperatures are read f
Page 141 and 142: * Vertical section through the atmo
Page 143: of Mineral Resources recommended a
Page 148: Much of Hong Kong's population live
Page 153 and 154: BibliographyABEL, Clarke, Narrative
Page 155 and 156: IndexAbel, Clarkevisit to Hong Kong
Page 157 and 158: Macdonnell, Governor Sir Richard, 2
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