Dry spell but water level still healthy

Showers provide respite from heatwave and more rain is expected early this week
Teo Wan Gek, Straits Times 14 Jun 09;

Singaporeans finally had some respite from the sweltering heat yesterday.

There were showers in the morning, breaking an eight-day dry spell. As of 3pm, rainfall of 27.6mm was recorded.

And there is more rain to come. Thunderstorms are predicted in the late morning and early afternoon over the next few days until Tuesday, said the National Environment Agency's (NEA) Meteorological Service Division.

An NEA spokesman said the June-to-September period coincides with the south-west monsoon and is generally a drier season compared with other times of the year.

But rain is still possible.

Associate Professor Matthias Roth of the National University of Singapore's Geography Department said: 'There is no reason why there could not be rain; maybe not widespread, but local convective rain is always possible.'

An NEA spokesman agreed, saying rain could still occur because of convection, when water vapour evaporates and condenses to fall as rain.

The total rainfall recorded this month, as of June 11, was 2.8mm. The lowest figure for this month was 37mm, in 1985.

From March till May this year, the total monthly rainfall was 223.3mm, 183.7mm and 198.6mm respectively. Temperature-wise, if you feel things are hotter now, you are right.

The NEA said June is the hottest month of the year, followed by May and April, because of factors like light winds and strong solar heating.

The average temperatures for this April and May were 28.5 deg C and 28.7 deg C respectively, and for June so far, 29.5 deg C. The long-term average is 27.3deg C, 27.7 deg C and 27.7 deg C respectively.

Malaysia is also suffering a heatwave, and water rationing could kick off from next month if people do not start conserving water.

In Singapore, a spokesman for the Public Utilities Board (PUB) said water levels in the 15 reservoirs remain healthy.

Noting that the weather over the past few weeks has been drier than usual, the spokesman added that 'Singapore will continue to have enough water to sustain all our needs'.

The PUB has diversified water sources to keep fluid the so-called Four National Taps - local catchment water, imported water, Newater and desalinated water.

Water is piped in from Johor under two bilateral agreements, which will expire in 2011 and 2061. By 2010, Newater will meet 30 per cent of Singapore's needs. The country's last water-rationing exercise was in 1963.

This means that, just like the call to conserve water in Malaysia, a similar effort will also make sense here.

Indeed, on July 1, the PUB is launching a mandatory water-efficiency labelling scheme which will start with taps, low-capacity flushing cisterns and urinals.

They will be labelled with zero, one, two or three ticks, with three ticks indicating the most water-efficient device.