All Storm Signals Cancelled As Nangka Moves Away

The Hong Kong Observatory cancelled the No 3 signal at 2.40am on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Nangka moved further away from the SAR.

At 2 am, Tropical Storm Nangka was estimated to be about 610 kilometres west-southwest of Hong Kong and was forecast to move west or west-northwest at about 20 kilometres per hour across Beibu Wan.

Earlier, the observatory had defended its decision to issue the No 8 signal for 14 hours on Tuesday, even though Nangka caused next to no damage to Hong Kong.

The number eight went up at 5.40am, a few hours after the storm reached its closest point to Hong Kong, about 440 kilometres south of the SAR.

Senior scientific officer Woo Wang-chun said it was the first time since the 1960s that the observatory had issued a No 8 signal for a storm that was so far away.