Super Typhoon Ragasa’s fierce winds have kept Hong Kong’s most severe storm warning in place for the second-longest ever duration, eclipsing storm Mangkhut but falling short of an all-out record.
The city’s highest storm alert, signal No. 10, was in force for 10 hours and 40 minutes after the Hong Kong Observatory issued the warning early on Wednesday morning. That was just 20 minutes shy of the record set in 1999 by Typhoon York, which kept the warning in place for 11 hours.
Colloquially known as T10, the signal means hurricane-force winds are present or expected to impact the financial hub. Ragasa has also marked the first time in six decades that the top storm warning has been issued twice in a calendar year, following a T10 in July for Typhoon Wipha.
Hong Kong has seen several records topple this year as extreme weather events become more frequent. The city was drenched by its highest ever daily August rainfall earlier this summer, with a severe storm testing its new flood defenses. Between late July and early August, the observatory also issued its most severe black rainstorm alert a record-breaking five times in just over a week.
Ragasa is also a rare late-season T10 typhoon — only Elsie in 1975 and Dot in 1964 have been later, both impacting Hong Kong in October. During Mangkhut in September 2018, the observatory kept the highest alert in place for 10 hours.
Some climate scientists have found a link between rising global temperatures and an increase in the frequency of powerful late-season storms. Late last year, the Philippines was hit by an unprecedented barrage of six cyclones within a matter of weeks, with one study making the link to climate change.
Researchers have also found that tropical cyclones are lingering over the southern Chinese coastline for longer durations compared to decades prior, which has led to an increase in storm-induced losses.
Photograph: Waves crash over a promenade in the Tseung Kwan O area in Hong Kong on Sept. 24, 2025. Photo credit: Lam Yik/Bloomberg
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Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters
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