2023 was Singapore's fourth-warmest year on record: Met Service

SINGAPORE: Last year was Singapore's joint-fourth-warmest on record, tied with 1997 and 2015, the Meteorological Service Singapore (Met Service) said on Monday (Jan 22).

According to the Met Service's Singapore Climate 2023: The Year in Numbers report published on Monday, the annual mean temperature at the Changi climate station in 2023 was 28.2 degrees Celsius – 0.4 degrees Celcius above the long-term average.

The only years that saw higher annual mean temperatures since records began in 1929 were 2019, 2016 and 1998.

"At the Changi climate station, the last nine months of the year saw above-average temperatures, with record-breaking temperatures in May and October," said the Met Service.

May was in fact Singapore's joint-hottest month on record, with the temperature soaring to a record-equalling 37 degrees Celsius in the middle of the month.

The Met Service added that 2023 saw a mean daily maximum temperature of 31.9 degrees Celsius, while the mean minimum temperature was 25.7 degrees Celsius.

The mean temperature in Singapore in the decade from 2014 to 2023 – 28.06 degrees Celsius – was the highest the country has experienced over a ten-year period. It was 0.05 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record, set in the decade from 2013 to 2022.

"This is the third consecutive year that Singapore's decadal mean temperature record was broken, with five of the top 10 warmest years occurring in the last decade," the Met Service said.

JOINT-WARMEST MONTH

The Met Service said that May was the warmest month of 2023, with a mean temperature of 29.5 degrees Celsius, 0.9 degrees Celsius above the long-term May average.

"Significantly, May 2023 was the warmest month on record, tying with March 1998," it reported.

On May 13, the mercury hit 37 degrees Celsius at the Met Service station in Ang Mo Kio, equalling the record for the highest daily maximum temperature recorded at a Met Service station. The temperature was previously recorded in Tengah on Apr 17, 1983.

The Met Service added that October was also "exceptionally warm", with the mean temperature at 29 degrees Celsius, above the long-term average by a "wide margin" of 1.1 degrees Celsius and surpassing the previous warmest October in 2002 by 0.3 degrees Celsius.

The warm temperatures, together with other factors such as humidity, wind speed and solar radiation, contributed to occurrences of high heat stress, the Met Service said.

In 2023, Singapore endured 37 days of high heat stress, which occurred mostly in April, May, June and October.

The country did, however, experience a cool start to the year, with below-average monthly temperatures recorded at the Changi climate station from January to March. 

"In particular, March – 27.1 degrees Celsius – was 0.7 degrees Celsius below the month's long-term mean and was the coolest March in the last 10 years," the Met Service said.

The Met Service also reported that Singapore's annual total rainfall for 2023 averaged across 32 stations islandwide was 2,866.1mm. This was 13.1 per cent above the long-term average of 2,534.3mm, and made last year the seventh-wettest year since 1980.

"Although 2023 was generally wet, there were drier than normal months in April, May, August and October. These months also turned out to be the top 10 driest for their respective months since 1980," it said.

The wettest day of 2023 was Feb 28, with 225.5mm of rain recorded at the Met Service's Kallang station. Singapore saw its coolest day of the year the next day, with a temperature of 21.1 degrees Celsius recorded at the Met Service station in Newton on Mar 1.

December was the wettest month of the year, with 569.4mm of rain recorded at the Met Service's Woodlands station.