By the second day of a serious signal, most Hong Kong parents know exactly what boredom sounds like in a small flat, a toddler dragging cushions off the sofa for the fifth time, a seven year old asking what's for the third snack of the morning, and rain hammering sideways against windows nobody is allowed to open. August is the month this scene plays out most often here, since it carries the highest odds of typhoon activity of the whole year, somewhere close to six chances in ten if you go by what the Observatory has tracked in past seasons.
Once the wind actually settles into a rhythm and the danger has passed the panic stage, the real challenge starts, and it usually has less to do with supplies than with how to fill twelve or more hours in a small flat with kids who have far more energy than the room has space for. So let's get the practical part out of the way first, what's genuinely worth having ready before the signal goes up, then spend the rest of this on what to actually do once you're all stuck inside, broken down by age so a toddler and a seven year old both stay entertained rather than climbing the walls.
This Year's August, by the Numbers
The Observatory expects somewhere between four and seven tropical cyclones to affect Hong Kong between June and October this year, which it calls close to normal after the unusually busy run of storms through 2025. Even in a typical year though, the risk is never spread evenly across the season. July, August and September are the months when a storm is most likely to hit the city, and August alone tends to sit right at the top of that range. It's worth having your supplies sorted now, while the sky is still blue, rather than joining the queue at ParknShop or Wellcome once a warning is already confirmed.
The Short Version of What to Have Ready
Aim for three days of nappies and wipes, a couple of extra tins of formula if you're not breastfeeding, and enough food that needs no cooking to get the rest of the household through as well, since local shops can close for a day or two either side of a serious storm. Keep any regular medicine your baby takes in the same basket, along with a thermometer, a torch, spare batteries and a fully charged power bank, because a flat can lose electricity for hours during a bad storm.
If you're still making up bottles, fill a flask with cooled boiled water before the signal goes up, so you're not caught needing to boil water on the stove if the power cuts out partway through the night. Once Signal 8 is raised, schools close, most workplaces send everyone home, and lifts and public transport start to wind down, so this is the point where you want to already be indoors rather than making a last dash out for something you forgot.
Many mums here start topping this basket up as early as June, long before the season actually gets going, simply because it's one less thing to think about once a warning does appear.
Comfortable Clothes for a Day of Being Carried and Underfoot
A typhoon almost always brings a drop in pressure and a rise in humidity before the rain even starts, and if the power goes out along with it, a flat with no air conditioning in the middle of a Hong Kong August turns warm and sticky within the hour. You'll likely be holding your baby more than usual on a day like this, since a clingy, unsettled mood is completely normal when the noise outside is unfamiliar, so a soft cotton sleepsuit without a tight waistband or scratchy seam makes those long stretches of being held far more comfortable for you both.
Toddlers building forts and older kids sprawled on the floor over a board game need the same thing for a different reason, clothes that can bend, crawl and get dragged through a cushion pile all afternoon without pinching anywhere. Breathable organic cotton handles both jobs well, and it matters even more for any little one who deals with eczema or skin that flares up under sweat and stress. A soft blanket does double duty here too, working as fort walls one hour and a comfort object the next once everyone has worn themselves out.
Typhoon Activities for Kids, by Age
The stretch of hours after a signal goes up is rarely dangerous, it's just long, and a bored toddler and a bored seven year old need completely different things to stay settled. Having a few typhoon activities ready for each age group before the wind picks up saves you from reaching for a screen the moment the wifi starts dropping in and out.
If your baby isn't mobile yet, the goal is closer to comfort than entertainment.
Texture basket. A basket of different textured fabric scraps for tiny hands to grip and explore doubles as sensory play and something to hold onto when the room feels tense.
Being carried and talked to. Peekaboo, a soft rattle, or simply being carried around the flat while you talk quietly about what you're doing works better than any toy, since a baby this age is mostly reading your voice and your face for cues about whether things are alright.
Smaller toddlers under three do best with games that use their whole body and their hands, since all that energy has nowhere else to go.
Shadow puppets. Shine a torch on a bare wall and hands, cups or toys become shapes that dance across the ceiling, good for a solid twenty minutes before anyone gets bored.
Cushion fort. Every pillow and blanket in the flat can go into one big fort, then get knocked down and rebuilt as many times as patience allows.
Sock puppet show. A puppet made from an old sock and a marker pen holds attention far longer than it has any right to, especially once it starts having opinions about nap time.
Sorting game. Matching socks from the laundry pile or grouping toys by colour keeps small hands occupied without needing much setup at all.
DIY playdough. Homemade dough takes about ten minutes to mix from flour, salt, oil and water sitting in most kitchens already, then can be rolled, squished and reshaped for as long as their patience holds out.
Sensory rice bin. A shallow tray of dry rice or oats, dyed with a little food colouring if you have it, makes a simple bin for scooping and pouring, though it's one to sit close beside rather than leave a toddler alone with, since little ones this age still explore with their mouths.
Storm box. A small container of toys and books kept aside and only brought out when a signal is raised makes old toys feel new again, so the novelty does some of the entertaining for you.
Bigger kids around four to seven can handle proper games and projects, which makes this stretch easier in some ways.
Board games. Snakes and Ladders, Connect Four, or a simple memory matching game fill an hour without much refereeing needed.
Card games. Go Fish or Uno travel well if the flat is dim and screens feel like too much effort.
Charades or drawing and guessing. Either one gets everyone moving and laughing, which helps if the noise outside has them a little on edge.
Lego challenge. Set them the task of building something that has to survive a gentle push from a desk fan, so the real wind outside becomes something they're in on rather than scared of.
Baking cookies. A simple batch keeps them involved at every stage, measuring, stirring and cutting shapes, and rewards everyone with something warm to eat once the oven or the wind has finished its work.
Simple pasta making. Mixing and rolling a basic dough does much the same job if baking isn't an option, and leaves you with something to show for a day that otherwise felt stuck.
Ice excavation. Freeze a couple of small toys or plastic dinosaurs into a block of ice the night before a signal is expected, then hand over a spoon or a small toy hammer and let them chip their way through to the rescue, a job that can occupy a determined seven year old for the better part of an hour.
Paper cup wall game. Tape a few paper cups to a wall with holes cut through them, so a ping pong ball dropped in the top has to find its way out the bottom, and leftover packaging becomes a proper game.
Cardboard house. A spare delivery box decorated with markers, stickers or scraps of fabric works well as a project they can keep adding to across the whole season, rather than something finished in one sitting.
Typhoon journal. A notebook where they draw or write down what they can hear and see from the window keeps them quiet and focused, and often ends up as a keepsake worth rereading the following year.
Why We Think About Days Like This
I design with these exact stretches in mind more than the easy, sunny days, because a typhoon signal is when small choices actually get tested. A tagless label at the back of the neck matters when you're holding a clingy toddler for six hours straight and the last thing anyone needs is something scratching at their collar.
A double ended zipper on a sleeper matters when you're changing a nappy by torchlight because the power has gone, since you can undo it from the bottom without unzipping the whole suit, letting the cool air in, or waking your baby up any more than you have to. Reversible pieces matter on the day the water pressure drops and you can't just throw another load in the machine.
None of these are things you'd plan out on paper. They only occur to you once you've actually paced a dark flat with a restless baby during a Signal 9, listening to the wind doing its worst just outside the window.
Most typhoon signals here come and go without serious damage to the average home, and by the time September winds down the odds start to ease again as the season draws to a close. Still, a well stocked basket by the door, a few soft, breathable pieces set aside for the kids, and a short list of games sorted by age take very little effort to put together and make a real difference to how everyone copes once the wind actually picks up.
If you'd like a hand putting together a comfortable typhoon wardrobe for your little one, our sleepwear collection was made for exactly this kind of unpredictable, sticky Hong Kong weather, and you'll likely find yourself reaching for it long after the season has passed too.
Shop our organic sleepwear collection