Two typhoons in the South China Sea will pass wide of Hong Kong around this weekend, bringing stormy weather but little hope of a day off for the city’s workers, forecasters say.
Hongkongers appear highly unlikely to be able to skip work days due to extreme weather. A running joke resurfaced about a mysterious force field supposedly developed by billionaire tycoon Li Ka-shing to protect the city from oncoming typhoons during office hours.
Tropical cyclones Conson and Chanthu will pass east and west of Hong Kong early next week, forecasters indicated on Thursday. Under their influence the city is expected to see days of thunderstorms from Friday until the middle of next week.
“The track of Tropical Cyclone Conson is expected to be further away from Hong Kong in the next couple of days, and the impact on the local winds will be lower than previously expected,” the Hong Kong Observatory said.
“Its associated subsiding air will bring very hot weather to southern China. High temperatures will also trigger showers and squally thunderstorms.” Members of the public are asked to beware of sea swells.
Forcefield-protected
“Awed by the authority of the national security law, even typhoons are afraid of coming to Hong Kong. Great!” wrote photographer Kevin Cheng on Facebook.
“Even typhoons are scared of 21 days quarantine,” wrote Aaron on Twitter.
“The forcefield is working,” wrote Twitter user Frank Chung. An image of the typhoons’ path includes a warm reminder from Li that one must get to work on time.
Another user Yuki Ng posted an image comparing Hongkongers to Icelanders. “When you know Iceland has begun the four-day work week. I want to go to work for just four day! Why am I not from Iceland? Hongkongers, you’ll head to work even during a typhoon.”
The city’s Observatory formally denied the existence of Li’s force field in 2015, saying it did not issue typhoon warnings based on economic considerations.
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