First two weeks of April to be ‘significantly’ warm and dry: Met Service

SINGAPORE — Warm and dry conditions in Singapore are expected to continue over the first two weeks of April, said Metereological Service Singapore (MSS) in a release on Friday (April 1).

The Met Service forecasts conditions to be “significantly dry and warm”, with some days expected to see the daily maximum temperature reach between 33°C and 35°C.

April is climatologically the warmest month of the year, said the weatherman. Rainfall in the next fortnight is likely to be below average, it added.

Last month, Singapore faced the second warmest March on record since 1929 — when temperature records started. And for 18 days in March, daily maximum temperatures exceeded 34°C — Thirteen of these days were in the second half of the month.

Choa Chu Kang experienced the hottest recorded temperature on March 11 at 35.3°C, which was also the highest temperature recorded so far this year.

The mean monthly temperature of 29°C for March was 1.5°C warmer than the long-term mean for March, the weatherman said.

Throughout March this year, rainfall across Singapore was significantly below average, the Met Service added. At the Changi climate station, the total rainfall recorded last month was 6.2mm (96 per cent below average), setting a new record for the driest March in Singapore since rainfall records started in 1869.

The weatherman said prevailing Northeast Monsoon conditions are weakening to give way to inter-monsoon conditions over the next two weeks. The prevailing low level winds during the outlook period are forecast to blow from the northeast and gradually become light and variable in direction.