Royal - HKU Libraries - The University of Hong Kong

The first steps towards scientific weather forecastingbegan with Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes, who drew aweather map in 1820 based on information gathered by theMannheim society.About the same Time, W. C. Redfield in New Yorkdrew charts of hurricanes, showing their rotary andprogressive motion. In the following two decades, scientistsin the United States and Britain established, as themeteorologist P. A. Sheppard said, 'the existence ofcharacteristic patterns of pressure, wind and weather(depression, anti-cyclone, etc.) and empirical rules for theirdevelopment, movement, and the accompanying sequenceof weather changes.'Despite scientific advances, the prediction of severeweather, particularly in the Far East, still depended heavilyon local lore and custom. One colourful description of earlyHong Kong 'forecasting' occurs in an account of thevoyages of the Nemesis, the first ironclad steamship in theregion, published in 1845:Our squadron, after its return from Canton, was exposed to thefull fury of one of these hurricanes, while it lay in the harbour[Hong Kong] previously to our advance upon Amoy. TheChinese, although ignorant of the use of the barometer, acquirefrom experience a tolerably accurate knowledge of theindications which determine the approach of these dreadedtyphoons ... It is a curious and novel sight to watch thepreparations which the Chinese make for the approachingstorm; the mixture of superstitious observance and prudentprecaution which they adopt, either in the hope of averting thethreatening tempest, or of securing themselves against itsimmediate effects. The sultry, oppressive feeling of theatmosphere, the deep black clouds, and other indications, warnthem to be prepared; and, from the noise and excitement whichsoon take place among the Chinese, one would rather imaginethey were celebrating some festival of rejoicing than deprecatingthe fury of the gods. Many of their houses, on these occasions,are decorated with lanterns stuck upon long poles twenty or14