2018 in S'pore was 8th warmest year since 1929

Prepare to perspire more.

Belmont Lay | January 16, 2019, 05:20 PM

Singapore was hot in 2018.

In fact, it was the eighth warmest year on record.

The year 2018 saw a mean annual temperature of 27.9°C, the Meteorological Service (MSS) said on Tuesday, Jan. 15.

This makes it the joint eighth warmest year on record.

This 27.9°C temperature was also recorded in 2014, 2009 and 2005.

The long-term average between 1981 and 2001 was lower at 27.5°C.

In 2017, the mean annual temperature was 27.7°C.

The warmest year on record is 2016 with a mean annual temperature of 28.4°C.

Temperature records started in 1929.

11 months in 2018 warmer

Even though 2018 was warm as a whole, January was unusually cool.

MSS said: “Above-average temperatures were recorded in all months in 2018 with the exception of January, when Singapore experienced an extended cool spell on 10 to 14 January.”

The daily minimum temperature dropped to 21.2°C when a monsoon surge from Jan. 10 to 14 brought five consecutive days of cool weather across Singapore.

“This was the longest cool spell Singapore has experienced in at least two decades,” MSS said.

A monsoon surge refers to the strengthening of north-easterly winds blowing from a strong high-pressure system over the northern Asian continent toward the South China Sea.

But by year-end, the tides turned.

December 2018 was the second warmest December in Singapore, with a monthly mean temperature of 27.6°C.