Hong Kong Observatory to enhance AI models after record-breaking downpours

The Hong Kong Observatory has pledged to further develop its artificial intelligence forecasting models to better predict typhoons and rainstorms after producing useful information before the record-breaking downpours earlier this week.

He Yuheng, acting senior scientific officer at the Hong Kong Observatory, said on Friday that the models successfully predicted the development of a rainband that brought heavy rain to parts of the Guangdong coast, a week before Tuesday’s torrential downpour, which led to the city’s second-longest black rainstorm warning.

On that day, the forecaster measured 358.8mm (14.1 inches) of rainfall at its headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui as of 5pm, the highest daily rainfall in August since records began in 1884.

“If we look back, one week before Tuesday, we already have several artificial intelligence models that have started capturing the progress of the particularly heavy rain this time,” he said on a radio programme.

“They forecast that there would be a rainband moving from the east to the west, which would affect the coast of Guangdong. It also predicted that some parts of the coast of Guangdong would have a very large amount of accumulated rainfall during 24 hours.”

But he noted that the models were not completely accurate in pinpointing where the rain would fall. However, it still provided a valuable basis for the Tuesday rainstorm forecast.