After record rain, second fortnight of January forecast to be generally dry and warm: Met Service

SINGAPORE — Compared to the exceptionally wet and cool first fortnight of the year, the second half of January is forecast to be generally dry and warm, the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) said on Friday (Jan 15).

The northeast monsoon season is forecast to continue for the rest of January with low-level winds blowing from the northwest or northeast.

In a press statement, the MSS said that daily temperatures in the coming fortnight are forecast to range between 24°C and 33°C.

Daily maximum temperatures are expected to range between 32°C and 33°C on most days, with highs of around 34°C on days with little or no rain and when winds are light.

It added that short-duration thundery showers, due to strong daytime heating of land areas, can be expected mostly in the afternoon over parts of the island on some days.

Singapore can also expect fair and occasionally windy conditions on some days with stable atmospheric conditions arising from the presence of a dry air mass over the equatorial Southeast Asia region.

“While rainfall for the second half of January 2021 is expected to be below normal, the overall rainfall for January 2021 is forecast to be well above-normal due to the exceptionally wet weather in the first half of the month,” the MSS said.

SECOND WETTEST JANUARY ON RECORD

The rainfall for the first two weeks of January, recorded at Changi, was 648.4mm, which already ranks the month as the wettest January in 30 years, MSS said.

It also makes the month the second wettest January since records began in 1869. The wettest January on record was in 1893, with 818.6mm on rainfall, it added.

The MSS said that the first half of January was exceptionally wet and cool due to a surge of northeast monsoon winds over the equatorial South China Sea region between Jan 1 and 2, and again from Jan 8 to 13.

The daily maximum temperature was below 30°C on all days in the fortnight except for Jan 5, 6 and 14. The daily minimum temperature dipped to 23°C and below on the first five days of the year.

The lowest daily minimum temperature in the first fortnight of the month was 21.1°C, recorded on Jan 2 at Newton.

It was also relatively windy in the first half of January. At the Changi climate station, wind gusts of up to 46.9km/h were recorded on Jan 2 during the second monsoon surge event. The highest ever recorded wind gust for January at the Changi climate station was 73.4km/h.

Islandwide, the highest maximum wind gust recorded was 70.2km/h at Admiralty on Jan 12.

For the daily weather forecast, the public may visit the websites of MSS or the National Environment Agency. They may also download the myENV mobile application or the Weather@SG app by MSS.