Hong Kong emerges from tropical storm Ma-on with little damage despite city maintaining No 8 typhoon signal for 14 hours
- Observatory says tropical storm moved further west than expected, sparing Hong Kong serious damage
- Social media users accuse weather forecaster of ‘untimely’ downgrading of No 8 signal, with some residents hoping for extra time off
Hong Kong has escaped the passage of Severe Tropical Storm Ma-on relatively unscathed, despite the city’s weather forecaster maintaining a No 8 typhoon signal for 14 hours and issuing flood alerts for low-lying areas.
The Observatory on Thursday said the weather would remain cloudy and isolated, while squally thunderstorms were expected for Friday as rain bands linked to the storm were set to continue affecting Guangdong province’s coastal areas.
It added that temperatures were likely to range between 27 and 31 degrees Celsius (80.6 and 87.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
All tropical cyclone warnings for Ma-on, which means saddle in Cantonese, were dropped at 4.10pm on Thursday, with the storm weakening after it made landfall near the city of Maoming in southwestern Guangdong.
