Environment chief visits HKO
Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan (first left) visits the Central Forecasting Office to learn about the HKO’s round-the-clock weather forecasting and warning services.
Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan visited the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) today to learn more about the department's work on providing meteorological and related services and its latest developments.
Permanent Secretary for Environment & Ecology (Environment) Janice Tse, Under Secretary for Environment & Ecology Diane Wong and Acting Commissioner for Climate Change Wong Chuen-fai also joined the visit.
Mr Tse had a meeting with the Director of the HKO, Cheng Cho-ming, and the directorate staff at Centenary Building, HKO Headquarters. After receiving a briefing on the operations and recent developments of the department, Mr Tse proceeded to inspect some of the essential facilities at the HKO Headquarters.
Mr Tse first visited the Central Forecasting Office to learn about the HKO's round-the-clock weather forecasting and warning services provided to the public, fishermen, the shipping community and the aviation sector, as well as other special users, through monitoring and analysing real-time local and overseas meteorological information.
He also toured the observatory's TV Studio to gain a better understanding of the production of TV weather programmes conducted in-house and the procedures of weather briefing under inclement conditions.
He then arrived at the Earthquake Monitoring & Tsunami Warning Centre which collects and analyses real-time data from seismological stations in Hong Kong and across the globe, as well as alerts issued by regional tsunami warning centres for the dissemination of earthquake information and tsunami warnings to the public.
Mr Tse said that the work of the HKO is noticeably professional. The provision of scientific input on climate change and its impact is substantial in support of the work of the relevant bureaus and departments as well as helping build regional and international meteorological co-operation.
The HKO's website, social media pages and educational activities have been very popular. Mr Tse was pleased to learn that the HKO will make ongoing efforts to raise public awareness of climate change and its impact through outreach and educational activities with a view to enhancing the community's preparedness and resilience against climate change.