VARIABILITY IN THE CHARACTER OF HONG KONG RAINY SEASONS

Using a range of rainfall variables, rainy seasons in Hong Kong in each of 99 years have been characterised and classified into 11 groups. Many of the correlations between variables are low, indicating the need for a multivariate approach to classification. The main characteristics of each group of seasons, their frequencies of occurrence and a small number of sequences of types which are unlikely to have occurred by chance are presented. Characteristics of the rainfall variables and aspects of their temporal variations are also presented.