Weather likely to be warm and dry for rest of Sept
Singapore may see first rainfall deficit in five years, with rainfall more than 40% below normal
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The weather in Singapore is expected to remain dry and warm for the rest of the month, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said yesterday.
The agency added that rainfall for this month could be lower than normal, which means Singapore might face a rainfall deficit situation for the first time in about five years.
Dry air from the high-pressure system over northern Australia is forecast to continue blowing into southern South-east Asia, including Singapore.
Cool sea-surface temperatures persisting over the tropical eastern Indian Ocean will also suppress cloud formation over the surrounding region.
As the monsoon rain band is expected to remain over northern South-east Asia, away from Singapore, the current dry weather is expected to continue into the second fortnight of the month.
Rainfall is likely to be more than 40 per cent below normal for the third consecutive month.
This could give rise to a potential rainfall deficit situation, said NEA.
The total rainfall recorded in July was 51 per cent below normal, and in August, it was 82 per cent below normal.
The last time a rainfall deficit occurred in Singapore was in 2014, when the average figure was 67 per cent, 89 per cent and 50 per cent below normal for January, February and March respectively.
Singapore experienced a dry spell last month, with rainfall significantly below normal.
The last recorded dry spell here was in 2014, and it lasted 27 days from Feb 17 to March 15.
A dry spell is defined as a period of at least 15 consecutive days with daily total rainfall of less than 1mm.
But there could be some respite in the last week of this month.
NEA said there could be short-duration showers for a few days in the afternoon, when the high-pressure system over northern Australia is expected to weaken.
For the rest of this month, the daily temperature is expected to range between 26 deg C and 34 deg C on most days, with night temperatures expected to be warm, at a minimum of 27 deg C.
The first half of September was generally dry and warm.
But there were a few days with brief showers.
In particular, on Sept 4, the thundery showers over many parts of the island were due to a convergence of winds over Singapore and the surrounding areas.
Rainfall was heaviest in the western part of the island, and the highest daily total rainfall recorded that day was 93.3mm in Jurong West.
