What is the weather like?
When in Singapore, get ready for rain and shine, all in good measure. Yet, the wet tropical wet climate does not disrupt life. The island country has an excellent drainage system and plenty of cover for walkers. Says avid golfer, Tarunjeet Sarao, director, strategic alliances, HP, “In my 13 years of living in Singapore I must have taken a handful of rain cheques. Plenty of sunshine combined with facilities to play night golf, ferry and car access to Indonesia and Malaysia, Singapore is a great place to live.”
Sunny Singapore’s tropical, wet climate comes with high dose of humidity. To beat the heat, most buildings including public transport is air-conditioned. Funnily, in a country where temperatures hit 31°Celsius on most days, people walk around carrying jackets to wear inside the malls, offices and even cabs where temperatures are often adjusted to freezing cold.
Rains too are easy to weather as there are intervals of sunshine, making for bright days. On an average, there is sunshine for 5-6 hours a day, throughout the year. Here’s an important relocation tip; invest in a washing machine with a good dryer since rains are anything but predictable.
On occasions rains bring with them thunderstorms and lightning. Singapore is a country that is studied for its lightning activity, so expect them very frequently. Golf courses in Singapore are equipped to monitor lightning action. In case of a danger of a strike, you witness something never seen in India; sirens blown to stop play with Golf Marshals, minders, dramatically going around in their golf carts with additional warning horns. We say, “Just stay in when you hear thunder.”
Last few years Singapore has also been facing haze caused by smoke from forest fires in Indonesia. Government agencies do a pretty good job of monitoring PSI levels.
One can monitor PSI levels on the National Environment Agency (NEA) site: http://www.nea.gov.sg/home or download apps like Haze SG https://itunes.apple.com/sg/app/haze-sg/id663816616?mt=8 and decide how you want to spend your time; indoors or outdoors. Of late plenty of political and public pressure is being created on companies, which are responsible for creating the fires leading to haze.
How many seasons does Singapore have?
Will sound like music to a Scotsman’s ears, it summer throughout the year. Temperatures range from 27 – 35 degrees Celsius. Some months it just rains more. If we must, seasons are not very well defined, can be vaguely differentiated by the onset of two monsoons-the Southwest Monsoon (May to September) and the Northeast Monsoon (November to January).
The wettest month is November and the months which have the Southwest monsoon months are comparatively dry with early morning rainstorms that mostly stop by the afternoon. The two short inter-monsoon periods also see sudden showers, which are shorter in duration and are comparatively pleasant.
We recommend: Cotton and poly blends
You can look cool and tackle the heat dressed in light coloured cotton shirts, shorts or skirts and singlets, causally. Formally, suits are good too considering the heavily air conditioned offices. We recommend cotton blends, spandex and linen. These are fabrics that absorb sweat and keep your body cool.
Temperature and humidity
Temperatures average around 31?-33ºC in the day, all through the year. The temperatures in the night too are unlikely to go below 22?ºC. The months of December and January might see slightly cooler variations with the hottest months being April and May. Average humidity is not below 70% and on rainy days, it touches 100%. The mornings and afternoons are the muggiest times of the day as humidity and heat makes one sweat profusely.
Outdoors, picnics and beach time
Singapore is a great place to be outdoors. Most of the evenings are pleasant. National Parks Board has done
a tremendous job of creating a green city with jogging tracks, cycling lane, park connectors, barbecue pits, camping, fishing, kite flying the works and to top it all it is tremendously safe. And convenient. You can book and pay for barbecue pits online: https://e-station.axs.com.sg/NParks/Internet_Payment/
You run out of excuses of not doing physical activity in Singapore! If you love outdoors read our article, ‘Great place to be Outdoors’ for a low down on swimming pools, running tracks, gyms, cycling, the works.
Fitness enthusiast, Joyita Poddar, Senior Director APAC, HR, Sabre Corporation, says, “My condo has an underpass, which gives us easy access to the 10.5 km long East Coast Park. Considering my hectic travel and long office hours I only get to run late in the evenings. It is perfectly safe and the only two things I worry about are my speed and distance timing. It’s awesome.”
Infrastructure has been built to support people to take a shower after run, rain shelters offering options for picnickers to wait out short showers and so on.
The best months to be spent outdoors are between February and April, the months between the two monsoons. The next best are the earlier months of South-West monsoons where afternoons or later morning offers picnic time with fewer showers.
Come rain or shine, there is no stopping fun in Singapore!
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