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December 2018 was 2nd warmest year-end on record; Met Service warns of long-term warming in S’pore

SINGAPORE — If December felt hotter than usual, your hunch is right.

SINGAPORE — If December felt hotter than usual, your hunch is right.

The last month of 2018 was the second warmest December since 1929, while the past decade is the warmest on record.

"These are signs of the long-term warming trend in Singapore," the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) said in a statement on Tuesday (Jan 15).

The mercury in Singapore continued to hit above-average temperatures last year, with a mean annual temperature of 27.9°C. This was 0.4°C higher than the 1981-2010 long-term average and 0.2°C warmer than 2017’s mean annual temperature of 27.7°C.

There were 11 months of higher-than-average temperatures recorded last year, with the exception of January when there was an extended cool spell.

December's monthly mean temperature of 27.6°C was only slightly behind the 27.7°C recorded on December 2015, MSS said.

The second half of the month was particularly warm, it added. The Changi climate station recorded a daily maximum temperature of 33.8°C on on Dec 28 and 30, tying the record set on Dec 2, 1948 for a December day.

The two hottest days last year were March 6 and Oct 5, with the mercury hitting 35.6°C at Admiralty and Marina Barrage respectively. May was the warmest month, with an average temperature of 29.5°C.

Since temperature records for Singapore started in 1929, the top 10 warmest years have all occurred in the past 25 years, and eight of them were recorded in this century.

The mean temperature for the last decade (2009 to 2018) was 27.89°C, surpassing the previous record by 0.02°C, which was from 1997 to 2006.

While last year's annual total rainfall was close-to-average, the rainfall recorded at the Changi climate station was 21 per cent below the 1981-2010 long-term average in some months, in particular from February to April.

June was the wettest month, with Ulu Pandan recording the most rainfall. The wettest day was on June 26.

MSS said that the extended cool spell in January 2018, brought forth by a monsoon surge, was the longest cool spell in at least two decades, with the daily minimum temperature dipping to 21.2°C on Jan 14 last year.

However, the coldest night was recorded at Tengah, when temperatures dipped to 20.5°C on March 30.

Other notable weather events last year included an intense thunderstorm on Jan 30, which brought rain and hailstones over the northern parts of the island.

"This is relatively rare in the tropics where hailstones usually melt before reaching the ground," MSS said.

Besides a waterspout off the east coast on Jan 31 — which blew sail boats on the beach a few meters inland — strong wind gusts of 133.3 km/h recorded at the Tengah station on March 31 last year caused substantial damage to chicken farms in the Lim Chu Kang area.

It was the strongest wind gust recorded since 2010.

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