Wet, warm weather expected for rest of October; temperatures may exceed 35 deg C on a few days
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Localised, short thundery showers are expected on most days in the second half of October.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE – The rest of October is expected to be wet and warm, with thundery showers expected on most days and temperature highs of 33 deg C to 35 deg C.
It may even get slightly hotter than 35 deg C on a few days, and minimum night temperatures could be above 27 deg C, said the weatherman on Oct 16.
Rainfall during the second half of October is expected over parts of the island in the afternoon on most days, said the Meteorological Service Singapore in its fortnightly weather advisory. The thundery showers are expected to be localised and short in duration, it added.
Total rainfall for the rest of the October is forecast to be below average for most parts of Singapore.
The Met Service said the south-west monsoon conditions prevailing over Singapore and the surrounding region are expected to continue in the coming fortnight, with winds blowing mainly from the south-east or south-west.
Reviewing the weather for the first half of October, the Met Service said that period was largely dry, with fair weather prevailing on most days, alongside a few days of short-duration thundery showers over parts of the island.
On the afternoon of Oct 1, there were heavy thundery showers over many parts of the island, brought about by regional wind convergence, said the Met Service.
The highest daily total rainfall for the fortnight was recorded that day around Nanyang Avenue, at 60.4mm.
The rainfall recorded for the fortnight was well below average. The area around Punggol registered rainfall that was about 94 per cent below average.
It was mostly warm in the first half of October.
Daily maximum temperatures exceeded 34 deg C on most days, with the highest at 34.9 deg C, recorded in Pulau Ubin on Oct 6.
Nights stayed warm, with minimum temperatures above 27 deg C across many parts of the island.
Air quality continues to worsen
Dense smoke haze from Kalimantan has been affecting Singapore since Oct 14, the Met Service said, adding that dry conditions are expected over southern Sumatra and parts of Kalimantan in the coming fortnight.
Under prevailing south-easterly or south-westerly winds, Singapore may continue to be affected by the haze, and spikes in PSI and PM2.5 may be expected on some days, the Met Service said.
Hazy conditions worsened across Singapore on Oct 16, with the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hitting a new high of 229 for this haze season at 3pm in the central region.
Air quality is considered unhealthy when the PSI – a 24-hour rolling average of six key air pollutants – is in the range of 101 to 200, and very unhealthy when it is in the range of 201 to 300.
The east and west have also recorded “very unhealthy” PSI levels since 10am, while the hourly PM2.5 readings islandwide have hovered in the “elevated” and “high” bands.
At 5pm, the one-hour PM2.5 readings – measured in micrograms per cubic metre and used as a gauge for current air quality – were in the “high” band for two regions: central (166) and south (159).
PM2.5 scores from 0 to 55 represent normal values, those between 56 and 150 indicate an elevated concentration of fine particles, while readings between 151 and 250 are considered high and scores above 251 are classified as very high.
Singapore is in its 12th consecutive day of unhealthy air since Oct 5 – the longest continuous stretch of poor air quality the country has endured since the 2015 haze crisis. That year, bad air lasted 14 days, from Sept 23 to Oct 7.