In 2022, Singapore experienced its warmest and wettest weather in years

2022 will be remembered for a lot of things, chief among them being the year that safe distancing, Trace Together, and VTLs became a thing of the past.

But did you know that October 2022 was the wettest October in four decades? That month, a high number of Sumatra squalls led to the Changi climate station recording 27 rain days, beating the previous record of 23 for the month of October. (FYI, a rain day is defined as a day with 0.2 millimetres of rainfall recorded at a rainfall station.)

The National Environment Agency (NEA)'s Metereological Service Singapore (MSS) released this, and a host of other notable stats, in their 2022 Climate and Weather: The Year in Review report. Here’s what else was unveiled:

1. 2022 was Singapore’s sixth wettest year since 1980

Not only did 2022 see record amounts of rainfall, but more than half the year was comprised of rainy days. According to the Changi climate station, we had a total of 210 raindays in 2022, the third highest after the record high of 222 in 1973 and 1927!  

2. Hot, hot, hot

2022 was the 10^th warmest year on record, with January and May temperatures being higher than usual (not a stat we can claim for January 2023, thankfully).

3. Wet️ March, Sweltering️ May

We experienced our rainiest March since 2009, and our warmest May…maybe ever. The temperature at Admirality hit 36.7 degrees Celcius on May 13, 2022, marking it as the hottest May day on record.

ALSO READ: Sweater weather: Temperatures of 24 deg C reported in parts of Singapore

4. Our hottest day occurred on April Fool’s Day

2022’s hottest day fell on none other than April 1, when the temperature spiked to 36.8 degrees Celsius.

5. The closest thing we had to winter

Those living in Jurong West got to experience a temperature of 20.4 degrees Celcius on Feb 20 – our chilliest day in 2022, but our coolest month occurred in December, when temperatures averaged 26.1 degrees Celcius.

The culprit behind all these record-breaking weather occurrences? The climate phenomenon La Niña. Its persistence, combined with conditions in the Indian Ocean, made our 2022 memorably hot and rainy.

Here’s hoping that 2023 will be full of fair-weather days!

Want to learn more about what caused Singapore's warm and wet weather conditions in 2022? Head over to NEA’s website to read more.

This article was first published in Wonderwall.sg.