The year 2024 marked the fourth straight year Singapore’s mean temperature over a decade reached a new high. -- ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Singaporeans experienced one of the hottest years in recent times in 2024, when temperatures hit an annual mean of 28.4 deg C, the weatherman said.
It tied with 2019 and 2016 as the warmest years in Singapore on record, the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) said in a statement on Jan 10.
It was a wetter year as well, with annual total rainfall averaging 2,739.8mm – which is 8.1 per cent above the long-term average of 2,534.3mm, and the 12th highest since 1980.
The long-term average refers to the 30-year period between 1991 and 2020.
Also, 2024 was the first full year in which global temperatures exceeded 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial times, scientists said on Jan 10.
The planet’s average temperature in 2024 was 1.6 deg C higher than the period between 1850 and 1900, when humans had not started burning carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels on a large scale, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said.
Its director Carlo Buontempo told Reuters that every month in 2024 was the warmest or second-warmest for that month since records began.
To prevent more severe climate disasters, governments promised under the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to prevent average temperatures from exceeding 1.5 deg C.
The first year above 1.5 deg C does not breach that target, which measures the longer-term average temperature.
The El Nino weather phenomenon from 2023 to 2024 was one reason for the warmer temperatures here, as well as rainfall earlier in 2024, the Met Service said.
El Nino can result in South-east Asia, including Singapore, experiencing hotter and drier weather due to changes in sea surface temperatures and surface winds over the tropical Pacific Ocean. A similar weather phenomenon, La Nina, brings wetter and cooler conditions.
The two weather patterns occur alternately every few years, and together, the two phases are known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or Enso.
The warm 2024 also marked the fourth year in a row that Singapore’s mean temperature over a decade reached a new high. It was 28.11 deg C, which is 0.05 deg C higher than the previous record from 2014 to 2023.
The monthly mean temperatures in 2024 also exceeded the long-term average in all the months except January.
April and July were the warmest months in Singapore that year, with mean temperatures of 29.4 deg C and 29.3 deg C, respectively.
While December was one of the cooler months of 2024, it was one of the warmest Decembers on record. That month recorded a mean temperature of 27.7 deg C, tying with that of 2015 and 2021.
MSS said that Singapore experienced a wet start to 2024, but average rainfall islandwide for February, March and April dropped slightly below their respective long-term averages. There was more rain in May and June, followed by an 18 day-long dry spell between July 13 and July 30.
Then rain poured heavily in November, with an islandwide average rainfall of 419mm. That made it the wettest November since 1980.
Weather extremes
MSS said Paya Lebar recorded the hottest and coolest days in Singapore in 2024. Temperatures reached 36.4 deg C in Paya Lebar on April 26 and 21.4 deg C on July 12.
The wettest day was on Jan 24 in Kallang, where 146.2mm of rainfall was recorded.
There were also new record temperatures that year. For instance, the Changi climate station’s highest daily maximum temperature for December was recorded on Dec 7 at 35.6 deg C. The previous record was 33.9 deg C in December 2021. - The Straits Times/Asia News Network
