Me 2017-08-23, 7 years ago:

After years of complaining about fake typhoons I finally get the front row seat to nature's rage!

There is stuff flying upward, falling downward, passing sideways across the view through our bedroom window. Leaves are hitting the windows, plastic bags and plastic traffic dividers from the construction site nearby are doing a confused dance on the street. The occasional banner flies by. The wind is skimming water off the sea and blowing it across the street, effectively raining from below.

Observatory webcams: hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/ts/index_web…

#HongKong #Typhoon #TyphoonHato

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_…

Me 2 years ago, 2022-08-23, reacting to the above:

Still remember this T10. The bike road and shore promenade near our home was torn to bits and took 2 years to renovate to a more resilient design.

I was probably wrong in 2022, and the T10 I was remembering was 2018's Typhoon Mangkhut. When you're already at the highest rating, there's a difference between a T10 and a T10. In 2017, Hato was the strongest typhoon since 1983, but in 2018, Mangkhut was stronger. I believe Mangkhut was the one that wrecked the promenade.

#TyphoonMangkhut

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_…

Typhoon Mangkhut - Wikipedia

The new promenade has a thick wall against the sea, and it has drain holes along the bottom of the wall at regular intervals, so that the water can retreat. It probably has other, less visible improvements as well, to the internal structures of the bridges, bike road, etc.

Is it more resilient? A year ago, September 2023, we were hit with Typhoon Saola, the first T10 since Mangkhut in 2018. The day after, the promenade looked no different than the day before, as if nothing had happened.

Civil engineering! It works!

#TyphoonSaola

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_…

Typhoon Saola (2023) - Wikipedia

@clacke I had no idea Typhoons had a different rating system than hurricanes. I assume this is historical but maybe not?

@musicman It's the Hong Kong Observatory's own system, introduced in the early 20th century with several revisions until the 1970s.

There is an international rating, but I'm not familiar with how it works.

The HKO typhoon warning rating is directly tied to institutional responses:

T1 is triggered by the distance to a typhoon from Hong Kong and is a warning only, no particular operational response.

T3, T8 and T10 are tied to wind speeds and cause certain institutions and businesses to shut down, go into mobilization, etc.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kon…

Hong Kong tropical cyclone warning signals - Wikipedia

We also have amber, red, black rain storm warning, lightning storm warning, northern districts flood warning and a few others, and businesses and institutions will have operational manuals that decide who goes to work under what conditions, and what other precautions should be taken.

Recently, unions, government and businesses have been developing a new heat index for regulating outdoor work, as a response to the increasing spells of hot weather.

@clacke @@musicman Thanks for the explanation. I'll share that with Grandson_3 when I get back home.

@lnxw37j1 Big fan of workplace regulation, civil society disaster preparedness and/or meteorology?

@musicman

@clacke @@musicman The five year old is a big fan of meteorology. Particularly hurricanes (and their other-names equivalents), direchos, and tornadoes.
@lnxw37j1 @musicman Then he'll be happy to know that a T10 typhoon has sustained wind speeds at 118 km/h or higher, and we have on average one every four years.