In response to the continuously increasing numbers of Very Hot Days and Hot Nights, the HKO will deliver Special Weather Tips messages pertaining to prolonged heat spells through push notifications in the mobile application "MyObservatory" starting from this summer. The HKO is also exploring to further strengthen forecasting and enhance dissemination of information to the public in relation to the combined impact of strong winds and prolonged rainstorms brought about by tropical cyclones, so as to better safeguard public safety. In respect of climate forecasting services, the HKO will publish seasonal forecasts for the next three months on a monthly basis starting from April this year, covering average temperature and total rainfall of the season in tercile categories. The HKO will continue to enhance its services this year. Members of the public should make proper preparations for the rainy and tropical cyclone seasons. On the other hand, the annual rainfall is expected to be normal to above normal this year, and Hong Kong may be affected by heavy rain. Under the influence of global warming and local urbanisation, the chance of the annual mean temperature being normal to above normal is expected to be relatively higher. There may be about five to eight tropical cyclones coming within 500 kilometres of Hong Kong this year, which is normal to above normal. On the weather outlook for 2022, the HKO expects that the tropical cyclone season may start in June or earlier and end in October or later. There were 61 Hot Nights (with a daily minimum temperature at 28.0 degrees or higher) and 54 Very Hot Days (with a daily maximum temperature at 33.0 degrees or higher) in 2021, both breaking the record highs set in 2020. The mean temperatures of March, May and September 2021 were 22.0 degrees, 29.0 degrees and 29.7 degrees respectively, all of which were the highest on record for the corresponding months. In profiling their stories, this article will add to the literature examining the lives of scientific workers and their contributions to science, the everyday cultural and social contexts of colonial meteorology, and the role of ordinary men and women in producing meteorological knowledge at this time.Marking World Meteorological Day, the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) today (March 23) recapped the weather in 2021 and elaborated on the weather outlook for Hong Kong this year and the latest developments of its services.Ģ021 was the warmest year in Hong Kong since records began in 1884, with the annual mean temperature reaching 24.6 degrees. Third, an examination of available evidence – levels of high staff turnover, complaints, instances of foot dragging, or working to rule, as well as the tenacity to continue for years under difficult working conditions – to demonstrate the ability of workers to reject or to negotiate with colonial/patriarchal authority.
Second, an investigation of their contribution to the nascent science of meteorology. First, an exploration of who these workers were, and the role they played at the observatory. While the glimpses of their work and lives are fleeting, often only revealed in minor archival references, this article seeks to interrogate these sources to make these workers’ lives visible and to offer an examination of everyday working relationships at this place and point in time. Yet without the employees, the service could not have functioned or grown.
As has so often been the case in Western histories of science, the significance of indigenous workers and of women in the Hong Kong Observatory has been obscured by the stories of the government officials and observatory director(s). This article investigates the contribution made by indigenous employees to the work of the Hong Kong Observatory from its inception and into the early twentieth century.