Hong Kong Weather Observatory stated that approximately 10,000 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes struck the city from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning.
The Chinese city is accustomed to high humidity levels in April, leading up to monsoon season, with people bracing for unexpected downpours during their workday commutes.
Beginning at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Hong Kong skies lit up, with the observatory recording 5,914 lightning bolts in a single hour while rain fell.
By 10:59 a.m. on Wednesday, it had registered 9,437 ground-to-lighting impacts, the vast bulk of which fell Hong Kong’s New Territories East.
Hong Kong island was the second-largest target of hits, with towering residential towers illuminated by the near-constant bolts.
The thunderstorm on Tuesday night also caused delays at Hong Kong’s international airport, while in the eastern Sai Kung region, fierce winds whipped at a Cantonese opera theatre made up of bamboo scaffolding.
The observatory stated on Wednesday that rains and squally thunderstorms would persist through the evening and into Thursday.
The city had planned a pyrotechnics show on Wednesday evening to commemorate May 1, the start of China’s Golden Week in which Chinese tourists were anticipated to visit Hong Kong.
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