Update 24 Mar 2024: S’pore may be hotter in 2024 than 2023 due to lingering effects of El Nino
If droplets of sweat bead your forehead the moment you step outdoors and run down your back despite an umbrella overhead, brace yourself. The hot weather looks set to stay in 2024, and could be even warmer than the temperatures felt in 2023 – the fourth warmest year on record for Singapore, said the national meteorologist on March 23.
The forecast warm weather is due to the lingering effects of a climate phenomenon known as El Nino, which affected Singapore in the second half of 2023. El Nino causes hotter and drier weather over South-east Asia, including Singapore, due to changes in sea surface temperatures and surface winds over the tropical Pacific Ocean.
“Since the warmest annual temperatures from any El Nino events typically occur the year after an El Nino forms both for Singapore and globally, 2024 could be an even warmer year,” said the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) in its annual climate assessment report. The prediction of sweltering conditions in 2024 comes as the weatherman declared 2023 to be Singapore’s joint fourth warmest year since records started in 1929.
Temperature soars to 37 deg C in Ang Mo Kio
Temperature of 37 deg C in Ang Mo Kio matches all-time highest daily mark hit 40 years ago
The mercury hit 37 deg C in Ang Mo Kio on Saturday, tying the all-time mark for the highest daily maximum temperature in Singapore, which was recorded in Tengah on April 17, 1983. It is also the highest recorded temperature for the month of May, and the hottest day in 2023.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the National Environment Agency said the previous high for the month of May was 36.7 deg C, recorded in Admiralty in 2022. The weatherman added that temperatures breached the 36 deg C mark in several parts of the island on Saturday. NEA said the warm and dry conditions are expected to continue on Sunday, but short-duration showers are expected next week, which may help to ease the heat and humidity.
Saturday was the second day in a row that the mercury hit a record high in 2023. On Friday, Singapore registered a high of 36.2 deg C in Choa Chu Kang. The year’s previous high was recorded on April 14, when the temperature hit 36.1 deg C in Woodlands. Singapore’s temperature records started in 1929.
Mercury in S'pore hits 36.8 deg C in April, second-highest temperature on record
Weather experts say Singapore is not in the grips of a heatwave, and that the temperatures seen are not outside the norm. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Weeks of sweltering heat in Singapore saw the mercury race past 34 deg C several times in the past six weeks, and hit the second-highest temperature on record last month.
On April 1, it peaked at 36.8 deg C in Admiralty, just 0.2 deg C shy of the all-time high recorded in Tengah on April 17, 1983.
Weather experts say the Republic is not in the grips of a heatwave, adding that the temperatures seen are also not outside the norm. But it will get hotter for Singapore and the rest of the world, with climate change making its presence felt.
Singapore recorded highest temperature in 10 years on Wednesday at 36.7 deg C: NEA
Singapore's highest temperature in 10 years was recorded at 36.7 deg C in Seletar on April 13. ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
A searing 36.7 deg C was recorded in Seletar on Wednesday (April 13), the hottest temperature seen in Singapore in 10 years.
Singapore experienced significantly warmer conditions in the first two weeks of April, when the highest daily maximum temperature ranged between 34.1 and 36.7 deg C.
The latter was recorded at Seletar, and is the highest daily maximum temperature recorded so far this year and also the highest in the last ten years, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said on Friday in a press release. As of April 14, the mean monthly temperature for the month was 29.4 deg C, which is 1.4 deg C warmer than is usual for April.
Singapore experiences highest-ever October temperature of 36.3°C
People with umbrellas in Singapore on Nov 22, 2022. (File photo: CNA/Hanidah Amin)
Singapore experienced its hottest October day on Oct 9, the Meteorological Service Singapore said on Wednesday (Nov 1).
Temperatures exceeded 35 degrees in several parts of the country that day, with the thermostat hitting 36.3 degrees Celsius at Admiralty, said the Met Service. This was the highest temperature ever recorded in Singapore in the month of October, surpassing the previous record high of 35.7 degrees Celsius recorded on Oct 14, 2001 and Oct 13, 2019.
The Met Service added that October was "generally warm", with daily maximum temperatures above 34 degrees Celsius on 25 days.
Temperature soars to 36.2 deg C in Choa Chu Kang, a record high for 2023
The mercury soared to 36.2 deg C in Choa Chu Kang on Friday, surpassing the highest temperature officially recorded in Singapore in 2023. Friday’s high was recorded in the south of Choa Chu Kang at 2.46pm, exceeding the previous reported highest temperature of 2023, which was on April 14, when it hit 36.1 deg C in Admiralty.
The highest-ever daily maximum temperature was 37 deg C in Tengah on April 17, 1983. The Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) had previously forecast that the warm and humid weather experienced in April was expected to continue into the first half of May. “May is normally one of the warmest months of the year,” MSS said in an earlier release. The first half of May is forecast to be warm and humid, with daily maximum temperatures reaching 34 deg C on most afternoons, it added.
“On a few days when there is less cloud cover, the daily maximum temperature could reach a high of around 35 deg C“. The Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Friday that schools have measures in place to help students and staff cope with the heat.
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