Trees felled by 83kmh squall cause damage to cars and property
By
Amresh Gunasingham & Alessa Pang
A large tree smashed into a covered walkway outside Sentosa's Underwater World during the Wednesday night winds, which were caused by an unusually intense Sumatra squall, a line of blustery thunderstorms that develop over Sumatra and the Malacca Strait at this time of year. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
STRONG gusty winds accompanied by rain wreaked havoc on many parts of Singapore on Wednesday night.
The police received more than 400 calls about traffic obstructions and other damage to cars and property caused by fallen trees.
Expect more squalls
ACCORDING to the NEA, one or two Sumatra squalls can be expected over the next week. But they are not likely to be as severe as this one.
Professor Lim Hock, founding director of Temasek Laboratories at NUS said Sumatra squalls usually hit Singapore in the early hours of the morning, bringing with them strong gusts of wind, heavy showers and thunderstorms.
Officers from the National Parks Board (NParks) worked through the night to remove the debris from roads and other places.
The strong winds were caused by an unusually intense Sumatra squall, said the Meteorological Services Division of the National Environment Agency (NEA) yesterday - that is, a line of blustery thunderstorms that develop over Sumatra and the Malacca Strait at this time of year and which move in over the west coast of Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia.
But the top wind speed recorded on Wednesday night - 83kmh in western Singapore - was four times the average experienced in the Republic on any given day.
On average, wind speeds of 33kmh to 54kmh were recorded on various parts of the island between 11pm and 12.30am.
Rainfall was light over many areas, with the highest level of 7mm recorded in Sembawang. The sudden storm caught many on the roads by surprise.
Estate officer Bernard Ng, 35, was driving home along Yio Chu Kang Road when it struck. 'It felt like a mini-typhoon,' he said. 'I saw many trees fall along the way.'
Up in his sixth-storey flat in Bishan, Mr Mohamed Seraj, a 23-year-old full-time national serviceman, watched as leaves and plastic bags were carried in from the ground floor by the wind.
The Sumatra squall can strike up to three times a month during the south-west monsoon season between March and November. But it is generally more common towards September, so Wednesday's storm was a little early, said Associate Professor Matthias Roth of the geography department at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
