It’s best to stay indoors during amber rain. Photo: Jelly TseThe Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning signal on Thursday afternoon, urging residents to seek safe shelter as soon as possible as intense gusts continued to affect the city.
The weather forecaster put up the alert at 1.45pm and warned that the heavy rain might bring about flash floods.
The signal is issued when heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 30 millimetres in an hour, and is likely to continue.
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“A broad trough of low pressure is bringing showers and thunderstorms to the coast of Guangdong and the northern part of the South China Sea,” it said.
“Locally, more than 20 millimetres of rainfall were recorded over the western part of the New Territories and Lantau Island in the past couple of hours.”
The forecaster also called on residents to seek safe shelter as soon as possible, avoid engaging in outdoor water sports, and not to stand on high grounds as intense gusts reaching 70km/h (43.5mph) or above might continue to affect Hong Kong.