Stormfront Coming
The first ships to explore the tropics noted two different types of storm. The first was a regular afternoon squall, developing quickly after lunch, then dropping a short, sharp shower which you can set your watch by; for example 3:30pm in Singapore. The second was a slow, dark, brooding depression which nudges the temperature and humidity incrementally higher over days which turn into weeks, leaving ships yawing uncomfortably on windless, slow-rolling seas until skies darken to sackcloth and finally deliver a relentless torrent of rain for 5 straight days and nights. Hong Kong spent most of 2019 caught in the latter. The nine months leading to Christmas 2019 saw Hong Kong's corporations, retailers and entrepreneurs struggle frantically to steer their businesses through one heavy swell after another. Chanel's Keira Knightley smiles approvingly as the sun breaks through skyscrapers on chanting marchers filling the streets of HK's Central district The first wave ...