I’m sure you would have noticed that June was relatively cold with lots of rain showers. It even extended into July though we see more sunny days now than the month before.
But did you know that the weather in June this year was actually the coolest out of the past 20 years of June? And it’s also the wettest out of the past 10 years.
Yep.
According to the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS), the weather in June put an end to a consecutive 28-month record of above-average monthly temperatures since February 2018.
With regard to its fortnightly weather outlook on 1 July, the total rainfall for June was 233.8mm. This amount is much higher than the previous highest record of 213mm that was recorded back in June 2011.
It was also found that the monthly mean temperature was 28.1°C which was 0.2°C colder than the June average measured in the long-term.
So why exactly was it so much colder in June this year?
Well, June is usually when the Southwest Monsoon season would start, and we would experience short showers or thunderstorms in the day as well as occasional Sumatra Squalls.
In case you don’t know what those are, they are essentially a line of thunderstorms that move east across Singapore right before dawn and noon.
If you’ve studied the rainfall in the past decades, you would have noticed that our annual total rainfall has been rising by about 97mm per decade. And it has become a recent trend to experience heavy rainfalls.
MSS believes that the rain is what brought down the temperatures of June. However, all the research information that is available currently cannot “definitively attribute” this trend to global warming, natural climate variability or other effects.
La Nina Phenomenon
Weather experts have also shared their own opinions on what caused the coolness in June.
According to Dr Matthais Roth, a professor of urban climatology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), the weather is a part of “natural variability”.
He said that there were a few factors that contributed to the rain in June – afternoon showers that resulted from strong solar heating at the surface of Earth, occasional Sumatra Squalls in the early morning, as well as the converging regional winds that disrupt the stability of the atmosphere and produce rainfall.
And since there is more rain, there is more cloud cover, and thus, the temperatures are lower.
He also noted that the cool and wet weather will continue into July, as we have seen in the past few weeks. He also explained that there might be a higher possibility of flash floods.
Assoc Prof Koh Tieh-Yong who is a weather scientist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) also shared his findings that in May this year, there was an anomaly in the central tropical Pacific Ocean in terms of a low sea surface temperature.
When there’s a higher surface pressure, converging winds will bring about more moisture and that moisture, in turn, falls as rain.
The cooling of the central Pacific has a high possibility of reaching its highest in the La Nina phenomenon in the next half of the year, and this would cause more rainfall and lower surface temperatures in Southeast Asia.
Climate Change
Contrary to what the above experts have said, climate scientist Benjamin Horton, who is the director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, believes that climate change is the main factor that caused the temperature to be as such in June and July.
Citing the increased rainfall since the 1980s as evidence, Prof Horton explained that when the temperature of the atmosphere rises, more moisture can be held. And when there’s more moisture in the air, there will naturally be more rain. He also noted that rainfall intensity partially depends on how much water the air is able to hold at any point in time.
Also, with the warmer temperatures, the rate of evaporation from the oceans increases.
He said, “Think about heating a large pot of water on your stove – the higher you turn the dial, the faster the water evaporates.”
This, in turn, results in more rain.
He then continued, “It is clear why this is happening – global warming arising from the burning of fossil fuels. We have changed our atmosphere and oceans and we are already seeing the consequences.”
While we may all rejoice about the fact that we get to enjoy cooler weather, perhaps we should also take a look at our actions, especially if they contribute to global warming, because having cooler weather may not necessarily be a good thing.
Now that you’re aware of a possible climate change, you might as well just watch our latest video whereby we simplify what TraceTogether is here:
Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:
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