Singapore may be even hotter in 2024 than 2023: Report

Effects of El Nino in 2023 the fourth hottest year here will linger in 2024

- Goh Yan Han

If droplets of sweat bead your forehead the moment you step outdoors and run down your back despite an umbrella overhead, brace yourself.

The hot weather looks set to stay in 2024, and could be even warmer than the temperatures felt in 2023 - the fourth warmest year on record for Singapore, said the national meteorologist on March 23.

The forecast warm weather is due to the lingering effects of a climate phenomenon known as El Nino, which affected Singapore in the second half of 2023.

El Nino causes hotter and drier weather over South-east Asia, including Singapore, due to changes in sea surface temperatures and surface winds over the tropical Pacific Ocean.

"Since the warmest annual temperatures from any El Nino events typically occur the year after an El Nino forms both for Singapore and globally, 2024 could be an even warmer year," said the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) in its annual climate assessment report.

The prediction of sweltering conditions in 2024 comes as the weatherman declared 2023 to be Singapore's joint fourth warmest year since records started in 1929.

The annual average temperature of 28.2 deg C tied with those of 1997 and 2015 - both also El Nino years.

The warmest years on record are 2019 and 2016 at 28.4 deg C and 1998 at 28.3 deg C.

In 2023, Singapore was affected by a "double whammy" of climate phenomena that caused warmer than usual temperatures.

Other than El Nino, positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) conditions also beset Singapore in the second half of the year. Similar to El Nino, a positive IOD brings warmer weather to Singapore due to atmospheric and sea surface temperature variations across the Indian Ocean.

Singapore is located between the Pacific and Indian oceans, and can be affected by changes in conditions over both ocean basins.