Singapore, 16 March 2014 – Widespread, heavy showers in the late morning and afternoon today has ended the 27-day dry spell in Singapore that started on 17 February 2014. An earlier dry spell between 13 January and 8 February 2014 also lasted 27 days.
2The periods of showers that started at 9:40am today were due to an equatorial band of extensive rain clouds in the southern part of the South China Sea, brought in to Singapore and the surrounding region by strong, deep easterly winds. The showers were heaviest in the eastern and southern parts of the island, which received the least rainfall during the dry spell. All except one of the Meteorological Service Singapore’s 64 rainfall stations recorded rainfall above 1.0mm. As at 6.30pm today, the highest rainfall total is 52.6mm at Changi. 19 other stations in the east, south and central areas recorded rainfall totals ranging from 31.0mm to 51.8mm. The highest rainfall recorded in an hour is 33.2mm (between 12:35pm and 1:35pm) at Sentosa.
3For the next two days, thundery showers are forecast in the late morning and afternoon. With the easing of the dry phase of the Northeast Monsoon, more rainfall can be expected over the next fortnight as the Northeast Monsoon transitions to the Inter-monsoon period expected in the last week of March 2014.
4For updates, visit our NEA website (www.nea.gov.sg), haze microsite (www.haze.gov.sg) or follow us on NEA Facebook www.facebook.com/NEASingapore) and NEA Twitter (@NEAsg).
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