Singaporeans welcomed 2022 on a wet New Year’s Eve, with rain across the island the whole day.
That was seemingly a precursor of what was to come, as we can now expect this wet and cool weather to persist.
Singapore will experience wetter and cooler conditions in the 1st 2 weeks of Jan, said the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS).
The rainfall for that period is expected to be slightly above average.
In a news advisory on 31 Dec, the MSS said the current north-east monsoon will continue into the New Year.
It’ll bring low-level winds that blow from the north-west or north-east.
These conditions had prevailed over Singapore since the start of Dec, but they were generally weak in the last 2 weeks of the month, bringing less rain than usual.
However, more rain will be expected in the 1st 2 weeks of the year due to a high-pressure system over northern Asia, MSS said.
The strengthening of this high-pressure system will bring a monsoon surge over the South China Sea, causing extensive rainclouds to form over the region.
This surge is predicted to bring cooler conditions, as well as moderate to heavy thundery showers to Singapore occasionally.
It will last for a few days.
After the surge, MSS said that Singapore will experience localised thundery showers in the afternoon – something quite typical for us.
However, the rainy weather will likely ease in the 2nd week of Jan, though the short-duration showers will still occur on “several days”.
On a few days, there’ll be passing showers accompanied by warm and occasionally windy conditions.
The rainfall for the 1st half of Jan is forecast to be “slightly above average” over most of the island.
All the rain in early Jan will have an effect of lowering the daily temperature in Singapore – which might be welcomed by those who hate the heat.
On a few days, the mercury could go as low as 23°C, and as high as 31°C.
Other days in the fortnight will be between 24-33°C.
This being Singapore, hot weather is the default, so on a few days, the daily maximum temperature may still go up to 34°C.
Looking back at Dec, Singaporeans would’ve noticed that it wasn’t as wet as it usually is in that month.
In fact, Dec 2021 was drier than Nov, MSS confirmed.
Singapore’s rainfall in Dec was below average, with the entire island recording below 0% anomaly.
The highest anomaly was 71% below average, at Seletar.
Due to the lower rainfall, the temperature was also higher than normal for Dec.
The mean monthly temperature was 27.7°C – 0.9°C warmer than the long-term Dec mean temperature.
The highest daily maximum temperature was a sweltering 34.8°C, recorded on 1 Dec at Tengah.
However, the lowest daily minimum temperature was 22.1°C at Jurong on 2 Dec. That day, the passage of a Sumatra squall brought rainy weather and cloudy skies.
As an illustration of just how hot it was in Dec, the Changi climate station recorded its highest daily maximum temperature ever in that month – 33.9°C on 1 Dec.
While we certainly had a warmer Dec, it looks like the 1st half of Jan will go back to the cool norm of the rainy season.
It might be more inconvenient to bring an umbrella out, but at least it’s a bit of a reprieve before hot weather slams right into Singapore again.
Thus, perhaps the return of sweater weather should be appreciated while it lasts.
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Featured image by asaresult on Flickr.
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