The Standby Signal No 1 will remain in force at least until 5 pm on Saturday as tropical cyclone Kajiki intensified gradually but was still at a distance from Hong Kong, said the Hong Kong Observatory on Saturday morning.

The T1 signal, which was issued at 9:40 pm on Friday, means that a tropical cyclone now centered within about 800 kilometers of Hong Kong may affect us.

“At 9 am, Kajiki was estimated to be about 610 kilometers south-southeast of Hong Kong and is forecast to move west at about 25 kilometers per hour in the general direction of the seas south of Hainan Island”, said the observatory in a bulletin at 9:15 am on Saturday.

In the past few hours, the tropical cyclone moved westwards steadily and intensified gradually and its strong winds were still at a distance from the coast of Guangdong, the city’s weather forecaster pointed out.

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The tropical cyclone was expected to skirt around 500 kilometers or more to the south of Hong Kong on Saturday night and Sunday morning, the HKO said, adding that winds will be occasionally strong over the southern part of the territory and the adjacent waters by then.

Meanwhile, the very hot weather warning was still in force as it will still be mainly fine and very hot during the day on Saturday, with a maximum temperature of around 33 degrees in the urban areas, and a couple of degrees higher in the New Territories, according to the observatory.

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“With the outer rainbands associated with the tropical cyclone edging closer to the coast of Guangdong gradually later today, it is expected to become cloudy with a few showers in the afternoon and squally thunderstorms later,” said the observatory, adding that there will be swells and it will be windier with occasional squally showers on Sunday.