Hong Kong emerged relatively unscathed from Super Typhoon Yagi only because the storm stayed relatively far away from the territory, a weather expert said on Friday.

Former observatory assistant director Leung Wing-mo, now a spokesman for the Meterological Society, said things could have been much worse had Yagi came closer. Yagi remained around 330 kilometres away from Hong Kong at its closest point.

"It's a very, very strong storm, but as far as the impact to Hong Kong is concerned, basically because it is quite far away from Hong Kong, wind conditions are not really severe," he told RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 245 km per hour near its eye, Yagi was the world's second-most powerful tropical cyclone in 2024 so far, after the Category 5 Atlantic hurricane Beryl.

"During typhoons, we worry about storm surges, flooding of seawater. This time, again, the storm is rather distant from Hong Kong, we do have some storm surges, but not too severe. There's an additional rise of half a metre to 70 centimetres of rising sea level."

Leung also urged people to respect the power of typhoons, and avoid doing “very dangerous” things like taking toddlers to the waterfront to get an up-close look at the storm.

He said surfers who want to take advantage of the high waves during typhoons should be mindful of the high risk involved and avoid putting rescue workers at risk.