Hong Kong’s unique weather station certified as the first 100-year-old high-altitude observatory

The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) has a reason to celebrate after it was recognised as the world’s first accredited centennial upper air observing station. The honours from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization were awarded in June 2021, 100 years after the facility started in 1921 in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district. In the early days, scientists launched pilot weather balloons by hand, tracking them with telescopes to calculate wind speeds and directions. The arrival of radiosonde in the…