🇸🇬Singapore

Singapore (733 km²) is a compact island city-state straddling the equator at 1.3°N, situated at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula between the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, exhibiting a textbook equatorial tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af).

The republic comprises the main Singapore Island (approximately 50 km east-west by 27 km north-south) plus 63 offshore islets, with topography ranging from sea level to the modest 164 m peak at Bukit Timah Hill, creating minimal elevation-driven climate variation.

The climate is characterized by uniformly high temperatures (26–32°C year-round), oppressive humidity averaging 84% with little seasonal fluctuation, and abundant rainfall (2,200–2,700 mm annually) distributed across all months with no true dry season, though northeast monsoon (November–March) and southwest monsoon (June–September) phases modulate intensity.

Inter-monsoon transition periods (April–May, October–November) bring afternoon Sumatra squalls—intense thunderstorm complexes propagating eastward from Sumatra—capable of dumping over 100 mm in under two hours. The urban heat island effect intensifies nighttime temperatures by 4–7°C compared to vegetated areas, with densely built-up downtown districts rarely cooling below 26°C even at dawn.

Singapore faces intensifying heat, transboundary air pollution, and accelerating sea-level rise. The 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis from Indonesian forest fires brought a Pollutant Standards Index exceeding 300 (hazardous level) for multiple September days, forcing school closures and grounding flights, causing an estimated $700 million economic loss and a 30% surge in respiratory hospital admissions.

Flash flooding repeatedly threatens the city; June 2010 Orchard Road floods delivered 300 mm in two hours, causing $20 million damage and exposing infrastructure vulnerabilities. April 2024 brought extreme heat, with temperatures reaching 37.0°C and heat index values approaching 45°C over five consecutive days—Singapore's longest heat spell on record—triggering public health warnings. Sea-level rise has accelerated to 4.0 mm per year (1993–2020), double the 20th-century rate, increasingly threatening Singapore's low-lying coastal areas and reclaimed land.

Our archive covers 1 Singaporean cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Singapore, around 28.1°C, while Singapore records the coldest January nights near 24.9°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 0.8°C.