Hong Kong issues first No 1 typhoon signal of the season as Observatory expects tropical depression

Hong Kong’s weather forecaster issued the first No 1 typhoon signal of the year at 5.40pm on Thursday as an intensifying low pressure was set to turn into a tropical depression.

“The broad area of low pressure over the central to northern part of the South China Sea continued to intensify in the past few hours, and will develop into a tropical depression shortly,” the Observatory said.

The forecaster added that the tropical depression was expected to gradually move towards the coast of western Guangdong to the vicinity of the Pearl River Delta on Friday.