Hong Kong to issue T1 warning on Wednesday as Tropical Cyclone Podul nears

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Hong Kong’s weather forecaster has said it will issue the No 1 typhoon signal on Wednesday as Tropical Cyclone Podul edges closer to the city.

The Hong Kong Observatory said that the weather would be hot over Guangdong on Tuesday, under the influence of outer subsiding air, noting heat-triggered showers would also affect the region later on the next day.

“The Observatory will assess the need of issuing higher warning signals later [on Wednesday] to early Thursday, depending on the distance between Podul and the Pearl River Estuary, its intensity and the change in local winds,” it said.

The forecaster added that when Podul made landfall over the vicinity of eastern Guangdong to southern Fujian on Thursday, its rain band would be “rather close” to the coast of Guangdong, triggering squally heavy showers and thunderstorms.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Podul, which means “willow tree” in Korean, was located about 720km east-southeast of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. It was moving west or west-northwest at about 25km/h across the western North Pacific in the general direction of the vicinity of Taiwan.

“Podul will intensify gradually and move westwards across the southern part of Taiwan. It will then make landfall again over the vicinity of eastern Guangdong and southern Fujian, and weaken,” the Observatory said.