Storm warning

Am I the only person in Hong Kong who is happy that Tropical Storm Chathu is apparently heading away from here?

Earlier today everyone else seemed to be eagerly anticipating a day off on Thursday on the assumption that the Observatory would raise the #8 signal.  Except that it now seems rather unlikely to happen, and all we will get is some rain and a bit of wind as the storm heads past, and maybe the rather unsatisfactory #3 signal. 

Anyway, my experience is that they usually raise or lower the #8 signal at inconvenient times, so everyone rushes home at the same time and all public transport is horribly overcrowded.  I can’t quite see the benefit of being sent home an hour early and then spending twice as long as normal to actually get home. 

On the other hand, if you can ignore the hysterical behaviour of your colleagues and stay in the office until most people have fled back home (to stick tape on their windows and rush to the supermarket to stock up on emergency rations) you might actually have a more pleasant journey home.  And busy places such as Causeway Bay take on an almost surreal quality when most people have gone home but buses and other public transport are still operating.

Comments

[S]

Not true, I dread typhoons especially after last summer. My apartment is horribly exposed. I taped the windows and spent hours soaking up rainwater that beat in through the windows and every crack. We couldn't sleep in our bedroom because of the high winds, the sway of the building made me sick. The day off was spent in angst and anxiety.

[gunlaw]

Apart from their being weather systems which are not nice to sail through (having tried it several times), typhoons are electrical phenomena and track alternating telluric currents which seem to be flowing from the region of Mactan Island, Philippines, towards, respectively, the regions of Sanyu, Hainan; Hong Kong and Kaoshing, Taiwan.

Each of these places, including Hong Kong Island and Lamma Island, is of volcanic origin or else exhibits vulcanism in the form of earthquakes. There is another alternating telluric current apparently extending from Sanyu to Hong Kong and on to Taiwan; and from Hong Kong to Sichuan and originating in Mactan, too. There is another alternating telluric current flowing from Kaoshing, Taiwan, to the region of the Kanto plain, Japan.

This is one explanation of why electrical discharges are so often seen in volcanoes. It is also part of the explanation of the cyclonic nature of the typhoon: rotation in a magnetic field will generate electricity and the converse is true.

The ability of birds to flee before earthquakes is possibly explained by their reaction to the associated change in the local magnetic field.