Tropical storm Cimaron to skirt Hong Kong as it heads for Guangdong

Tropical storm Cimaron is expected to skirt Hong Kong, and the chance that the storm warning will be raised even higher is low, the Observatory said on Thursday.

A standby signal No 1 has been in place since late on Wednesday as Cimaron approached Guangdong coasts.

The Observatory said the storm was expected to make landfall later on Thursday afternoon or evening in the coastal areas of eastern Guangdong and southern Fujian provinces – more than 200 kilometres away from Hong Kong.

“The chance of issuing the strong wind signal No 3 is not high,” a spokeswoman said. She added that winds were not expected to strengthen significantly in Hong Kong as the circulation of Cimaron was rather small.

But she said Hong Kong would remain cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms on Thursday until Sunday.

At Thursday noon, the storm was estimated to be about 390 kilometres east of Hong Kong and was forecast to move northwest or north-northwest at about 22km/h.