A Storm In A Teacup Over First T1 Warning

The Hong Kong Observatory on Tuesday left everyone confused with its first storm signal of the year.

The Observatory sent out a note at 9.25am saying the "Standby Signal No 1 had been issued at 11:20am", which government information services staff also distributed to the media.

This led to frantic calls to the Observatory to see at what time the signal was actually going up, but most callers could not get through.

The Observatory website then posted an apology at 11:05am to clarify that there was a typo in their alert.

"Owing to a typographical error, the message was disseminated earlier than the valid time. We apologise for any possible inconvenience caused," the message said, putting an end to the storm in a teacup.

The warning said a tropical cyclone, now centred within about 800 kilometres of Hong Kong, may affect the territory. It also said strong winds may occur over offshore waters.