A new look of Observatory Website

16 July 2015

The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) launches today (16 July 2015) a front page of the HKO website (http://www.hko.gov.hk or http://www.weather.gov.hk) with brand-new design. The new webpage provides the public with at-a-glance weather information pertaining to different weather scenarios. For example, the front page will display weather information related to a tropical cyclone, such as the tropical cyclone forecast track map whenever a tropical cyclone warning signal is in force. Moreover, the website will be switched to mobile version automatically if the front page is accessed via mobile devices.

A revamped "World Weather Information" webpage is also launched to enhance the worldwide weather information service on the HKO website. The new webpage consolidates the webpages on "World Weather Forecast" and "Climatological Information of World Cities" into a single portal, providing official weather forecasts or climatological information for more than 3,000 locations, facilitating travellers to appreciate the weather conditions of their destinations. A widget is also made available on the front page of the website for users to set up "My Favourite Locations" to conveniently view weather forecast for their favourite locations.

Besides, a new algorithm has been adopted for the rainfall distribution map on the website. The same set of rain gauge data is used in both versions. The new version integrates radar data to fill locations such as countryside where no rain gauge data is available. Upon verification, the new method was found to be even better in displaying the geographical distribution of rainfall in greater details.