Joanna's Singapore adventures

To say the climate is different here to back home would be quite an understatement. I got quite a shock arriving here out of the middle of Australian winter. There isn’t really such a thing as winter here. The coldest ever recorded temperature in Singapore (19. degrees C recorded in 1934) is much warmer than the majority of winter days in Australia. Nether is there such a summer extreme- the highest ever recorded temperature is 36 degrees C. The average daily maximum is around 30-32 degrees C depending on the time of year. The only noticeable seasonal difference is that some parts of the year it rains a bit more than others. I very rarely check the weather forecasts here because it is pretty safe to assume that it will be quite warm, humid and will probably rain. The frequency of thunderstorms does change a bit throughout the year peaking at an average of 18.6 days with thunder and 23.6 days with lightening in November. I thought thunder and lightening tended to come together but apparently not. The storms can be very spectacular, although it is someone unnerving to get woken up by thunder that sounds like bombs going off.

When I first arrived I found the outdoor conditions hard to deal with. Now it’s the inside conditions I find the hardest. Singaporeans love their air-conditioning. Sometimes it is really nice. Often it is a bit over the top. Despite environmental campaigns encouraging people not to use more electricity than they need, air conditioners tend to be turned up way too high. It sometimes gets so insanely cold that people bring blankets or jackets with them to lectures. I often find myself wanting to get back out of the air-conditioning into the heat outside. It is absurd that I would feel the need to do that in a tropical climate The worst is having to sit under freezing air-conditioning after getting wet in a rainstorm.



Weather data from National Environment Agency