Noul had us at T9 Saturday night, full typhoon signal, and by dawn Sunday the Observatory dropped it to T8. So the storm's basically done its worst and moved on.

A motorcyclist crashed into a lamppost at Chek Lap Kok on Friday evening and died. This happened while the No. 3 signal was up, not the strong typhoon signal, the lower "strong wind" one that barely gets a mention on the radio.

The signal number tells you how bad the wind gets, not how dangerous the roads are. South China evacuated 340,000 people ahead of Noul, which is the sensible, visible response to a big storm. The T3 to T8 jump gets you the press conference and the ferry cancellations. The gap in between, wet roads, sudden gusts, a lamppost that doesn't move, gets far less attention, even though it is where this death occurred. Drivers and riders should stay cautious on wet roads even when the signal is low.