When it comes to Singapore weather, it's usually hard to describe it as anything other than 'hot' and 'hotter'.

But as this past week's 'officially freezing' weather has shown, sometimes the weather gods can throw us a curveball. Here are five times our local weather made us go 'Wah!':

1. Hailstones

2013 brought about a once-in-a-Singaporean-lifetime weather phenomenon - hailstones, which Mediacorp's Channel 5 described as a 'scene from a western apocalyptic blockbuster'.

Hailstones are formed by supercooled water droplets which come into contact with air particles and subsequently freeze. When these hailstones become too heavy to be supported by the draughts, they fall to the ground.

The hail incident in 2013 fell mainly in the west - in the Jurong and Bukit Batok areas - and lasted about 30 minutes.

Aside from the amusement of having ice rain down on us, the incident also brought us this gem which spawn an avalanche of grape memes:

For the record, hail have fallen in Singapore before. According to the Singapore Meteorological Services, the last occurrences of hail were in 2009 and 2014.

2. Paddle-Pop skies

On different occasions in 2017, our Instagram feeds were flooded with an array of dazzling ombré sunsets.

Particles in the sky scatter lightwaves, which then gives us more muted colours. When heavy rain washes away these particles, lightwaves from the sunset are less scattered, giving us more intense pink/orange/purple skies.

So the next time a heavy storm comes and goes before a sunset, consider it the sky's gift for your Instagram feed.

[related_story]

3. Iridescent clouds 

2017 was definitely a good year for all things multi-hued.

Apart from the sexy Instagrammable sunsets, we also had unicorn poop iridescent clouds.

These are formed by ice crystals that diffract (bend) light behind certain types of clouds. And no, they are not called fire rainbows (which are a different thing altogether).

4. Mass flowering

In 2014, a sudden mass flowering phenomenon occured across the island.

According to NParks, the likeliest cause for this mass flowering was a recent prolonged dry spell in Singapore that lasted for more than a month, followed by a few days of heavy rain. 

The exact cause was unknown but that didn't prevent Singaporeans from enjoying the blooms.

5. Ponding

Finally, the fabled once-in-50-years ponding that has entered the public's consciousness struck again last week over the eastern parts of Singapore.

From the very 'ponded' Orchard Road to the equally 'ponded' Thomson Road, it's almost as if every torrential rain is a harbinger of knee deep muddy water the next day.

Perhaps it is an inadequate drainage system, perhaps it is climate change to blame, but one thing's for sure: you're going to need more than an umbrella the next time it pours.

Top images via Citynews and Facebook.