Black Rainstorm

It is the rainy season in Hong Kong and thunderstorms have been rolling in from the South China Sea. By this morning, we had had almost 300 milimeters of rain fall over parts of Hong Kong - about a foot of water - in the previous 24 hours.

I circled Stanley, where we live, in blue in the map above.

The rain was so intense, the government declared a Black Rainstorm warning, which means more than 70 milimeters of rain are falling per hour. Because of the danger of flooding and landslides, schools and many offices are closed when the Black Rain signal is raised.

True was just complaining yesterday that it rarely reaches black, so he never gets a rain day. This morning, however, the black signal was still up at 7:30 am and so school was called off. He literally jumped for joy.

The kids were lucky - the black signal was cancelled at 9:45 am and by mid-morning there wasn't more than a steady drizzle.

Anna went to the office despite the weather but I am working from home, so the boys and I went to the American Club for lunch.

It was crowded with kids because there was no school. We found a quiet corner and ordered ...

... and ate.