A woman and two children caught in the heavy rain at the Singapore Botanic Gardens yesterday at around 4pm.

The downpour over various parts of the island offered a brief respite from the warm weather this month.

While May is typically the second warmest month of the year after April, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in its outlook that rainfall for the first fortnight of this month is expected to be near average.

From today until Sunday, Singapore is expected to experience thundery showers in the morning and afternoon, with temperatures ranging from 24 deg C to 35 deg C, said the NEA on its website.

Last month, Singapore experienced its warmest day on record when the daily mean temperature hit 30.6 deg C on April 19. This was up from the previous high of 30.2 deg C on June 22 last year.

April is typically the warmest month of the year, with a long-term mean monthly temperature of 28 deg C.