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SINGAPORE: The strong gusty winds felt in Singapore on Monday (January 18) are due to the rising monsoon in the northeast and are not unusual for this time of year, weather experts said.
According to the Singapore Meteorological Service, wind speeds peaked at 49.3 km / h at the Admiralty weather station at 11:01 am, the highest on Monday. The Tai Seng Weather Station recorded wind speeds of 37.2 km / h at around 2:00 p.m.
Above-average wind speeds are typical for this time of year when overall flow is dominated by monsoon winds from the northeast, said Dr. Matthias Roth, professor of urban climatology at the National University of Singapore.
“Generally, high wind speeds also create strong gusts,” he told CNA.
There is currently a “strong high pressure system” over China, creating a surge of northeast winds over the South China Sea. This is responsible for the windy weather, but also the cool and rainy conditions that Singapore is experiencing, he added.
The stormy gales will last as long as current conditions exist in China, Dr. Roth said, “probably only a couple of days at most.”
READ: Dry and warm conditions expected for the rest of January with highs of 34 ° C
The strongest winds occur during the northeast monsoon in January and February, said Professor Benjamin P Horton, director of the Singapore Earth Observatory at Nanyang Technological University.
Winds in Singapore are “generally light”, with an average surface wind speed typically less than 2.5 m / s. During a monsoon surge in the northeast, average speeds of 10 m / s or more have been observed, he added.
The strongest wind gust recorded in the last 36 years was on November 29, 2010, when the maximum wind speed reached 90.7 km / h.
“The other times strong winds occur are during thunderstorms. Surface wind gusts are produced from storm downdrafts and the passage of Sumatra squall lines, ”said Professor Horton.
The Sumatra Squall is an organized line of thunderstorms that develops over the Indonesian island of Sumatra and moves east towards Singapore and Malaysia. Such thunderstorms can last up to two hours and feature wind gusts of more than 80 km / h, he added.
File photo of kites flying near the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore. (Photo: AFP / Roslan Rahman)
However, the winds associated with the Sumatra storm generally do not last long, unlike the conditions brought on by the northeast monsoon.
“Given the large scale of the situation causing the high speed of the background wind, gusts will be experienced throughout Singapore,” said Dr Roth of the current windy weather.
“This is different from the even stronger gusts associated with other well-known phenomena such as Sumatra storms which, however, are less common during the northeast monsoon period, are local in nature and generally do not last long.”
He added that the urban environment plays an important role.
“While higher average wind speeds generally create stronger gusts, this relationship is modified in cities where friction from buildings can result in very strong localized gusts in response to the street network,” said Dr. Roth .
“Therefore, even in a seemingly sheltered environment near the surface, a pedestrian can encounter strong gusts in some places.”
The Met Service said on Friday that Singapore can expect fair and occasionally windy conditions in a few days in the second half of January, with stable atmospheric conditions stemming from the presence of a dry air mass over the equatorial region of Southeast Asia.
