Hong Kong Typhoon Tracker & Live Weather Radar Map

Few cities organize their year around storms the way Hong Kong does. Perched on the South China coast at the edge of the western Pacific, the territory sits in the planet's most typhoon-active waters, and when a serious storm bears down, the whole city responds in a way visitors find startling: workplaces empty, transport halts, and the famous warning signals climb. Typhoons, the storm surge they push ashore, and the torrential rain that triggers floods and landslides on the steep terrain are the defining hazards here — and tracking them is a deeply ingrained civic habit.

Why the storms come

Hong Kong's exposure comes down to its position. The western Pacific and South China Sea are vast and warm, providing the fuel tropical cyclones need, and the prevailing winds often steer those systems west and northwest — straight toward the southern Chinese coast. The peak runs from summer into autumn, and most years bring several storms close enough to matter, with the occasional direct hit.

What makes these storms dangerous is also how fast they can grow. Crossing exceptionally warm water with little to disrupt them, typhoons can undergo rapid intensification, strengthening sharply in a short time. Watching a storm's track against the warmth of the sea beneath it is an early clue to how much room it has to build.

The signal system: a city that stops

Hong Kong's relationship with typhoons is captured in its tropical-cyclone warning signals, a scale that escalates as the threat rises. The lower signals (No. 1 and No. 3) mark an approaching storm and strengthening winds. The pivotal one is Signal No. 8: when it goes up, the city effectively closes — offices and schools shut, and public transport begins to wind down — because dangerous gale or storm-force winds are expected. Signals No. 9 and No. 10 mark even more extreme conditions, with T10 reserved for a direct, hurricane-force strike. For residents, "is a T8 coming?" is one of the most consequential weather questions of the year.

Rain and the hills

The wind is only half the danger. Hong Kong's other signature hazard is torrential rain, flagged by its rainstorm warning system, which tops out at the black rainstorm warning for the most extreme downpours. On the territory's steep, hilly terrain, that intense rain runs off fast and can trigger flash floods and landslides — a threat that can rival the typhoon winds. Heavy rain sometimes arrives bundled with a typhoon and sometimes on its own, so it's a hazard worth watching independently.

Along the low-lying waterfront, a strong typhoon also drives storm surge — a rise of seawater pushed ashore that can flood coastal districts, especially when it lines up with a high tide. Past storms have sent water surging into harbourside areas, a reminder that the sea is part of the threat too.

Reading it on the live map

A Hong Kong typhoon is best followed with three layers together:

• Track the storm. Turn on the Hurricanes layer to see the typhoon's path and forecast approach to the coast.
• Watch the rain. Add Radar to follow the bands sweeping in — the rain and its flooding are often as significant as the wind.
• Read the fuel. Use Sea Surface Temperature to see the warm water feeding the storm; very warm seas give it room to intensify fast.
• Mind the surge and the cycle. Coastal areas face storm surge, as the surge guide explains, and the El Niño cycle helps set how active the western-Pacific season runs.

The hurricane layer tells you where it's going, radar tells you when the rain hits, and the warm ocean tells you how strong it might get. In a city that built an entire warning culture around these storms, reading them together is simply how Hong Kong stays ready.