Paul Treu, in his daily diary, mentioned that the weather in Hong Kong this past few days are probably the worst he’s ever experienced on this side of the noodle-gordyn. As you can see from the TV screen below, Hong Kong experienced a thunderstorm this morning. This was to be expected given the moisture-buildup over the past few days (95% humidity). As a result, the Springboks’ training game against the West Indies has been cancelled and re-scheduled for this afternoon. Stay tuned…
Check out the humidity reading: a whopping 97% at 9 in the morning! Welcome to HK!
Victoria Harbour at 9am. You can barely see the HK Island skyline.
The fog continued into Sunday and, in fact, I am typing this from StarBucks in Tsim Sha Tsui where outside over Victoria Harbour the fog is still thick and the fog-horn’s still blaring intermittently. I took this picture from my lounge yesterday morning:
Causeway Bay across Victoria Harbour, with HK Stadium visible.
Don’t let the fog fool you, humidity is very high especially today. The Springboks will be arriving sometime this morning and they will have quite an interesting landing. They will be landing through the fog and as the plane descends, it will look as if they are landing over the ocean. The plane in fact, does descend over the open ocean off Lantau Island and touches down virtually on the edge of the island runway!
The fog that clouded the areas around Victoria Bay (the waterway between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon) for most of the last week.
Fog
Fortunately, the HK Observatory forcasts on it’s website that the fog will persist only until Tuesday March 24.
Rain
However, from Tuesday it will remain cloudy with rain patches continuing right into Sevens Weekend (Saturday, March 28).
Humidity
Relative Humidity will remain VERY HIGH at between 70-95%
Mike’s Notes:
Cloudy weather in Hong Kong is good (especially if you perspire like me). The sun’s heat will not be so searing when it’s cloudy. Be wise and bring a cap nevertheless.
It’s going to be hellavu humid though so do take an extra t-shirt with you to the stadium (take 3 if you’re going to be sitting on the South Stand! You wouldn’t want to be stinking of Giunness all day long!)
The rain patches might be of concern to the coaches. Hong Kong Stadium’s notoriously slippery underfoot conditions will be intensified with a little moisture, which should make the going rather difficult for the speedsters.
Members of the HK Sevens team put some youngsters through lineout drills during the Team Announcement on Saturday March 21.
This is what Victoria Harbour looked like when I took the ferry over to Hong Kong Island to attend the Team Announcement for the HK men’s and women’s Sevens Teams:
Foggy, but humid. The HK Exhibition Centre seen from the Star Ferry.
However, So Kon Po (opposite the HK Stadium) looked OK and not too foggy. The So Kon Po grounds are where the teams will be doing their warm-up drills during next week’s HK Sevens. This is what it looked like this morning (Saturday March 21):
HK Sevens coach Rodney McIntosh announces his side.
