Lightning and thunder

Hong Kong is in the middle of a thunderstorm. As tenants of the island's tallest building, Two International Finance Centre, we have to witness the lightning and growling thunder darkening the sky across the harbour. The thunder is so loud you can hear it from my office, which does not have a window. You can't see anything through the grey black fuzz of thick raindrops.

Hong Kong has a very sophisticated system of weather warnings designed to warn the populace about the tropical weather they encounter. This morning, for example, we have had two weather warnings already: an amber rainstorm signal and the thunderstorm signal. Amber rainstorm signals mean that heavy rainfall exceeding 30 millimetres per hour is due to continue. The next level is red rainstorm (rainfall exceeds 50 millimetres per hour), then black rainstorm (rainfall exceeds 70 millimetres per hour). People usually hope for the black rainstorm signal to be up in the mornings because that means they don't have to go to work as it is considered too dangerous to travel in such conditions.

The tropical cyclones that stir up the region between the months of May and November are also dealt with by the warnings. Whereas up until 1937 a typhoon gun was used to notify the scared crowds (imagine seeing a cyclone gear up in the horizon, and then hearing gun shots), these days television and radio broadcasts follow the five step warning signals issued by the Hong Kong Observatory. If a typhoon signal 8 is about to be raised, people leave their offices to travel back home as these signals last quite a while and you wouldn't want to be stuck at work, unable to leave since public transport is stopped or reduced significantly. The Stock Exchange closes. Everything shuts down and people are left to wander about inside shopping centres, cinemas, pubs and dim sum restaurants which offer 'Typhoon specials' of discounted menus.

Naturally, as a lawyer, I have to think about what happens in such events - does a day with a typhoon signal 8 raised count as a 'business day'? What time should we decide events should not go ahead - 9 am? 2 pm? And so on.

Most days, when it's raining, I trudge about the covered walkways of Hong Kong, remembering what my dad used to tell me about Hong Kong when I was a child.
"You can walk about everywhere inside walkways, and not get wet even though it's raining! Don't you remember?" he had said. I didn't remember. This morning, I stood for a minute inside one such covered walkway to watch a huge screen on the opposite building display Amber Valletta in designer clothes walking down a white-lit catwalk.