The weather is relentless this week. By 9.30am, it's unbearable and by 10am, the concrete pavement and paths are a tad too hot for the dog's paws to walk on. She can't really walk her usual distances now. She does shorter walks with one extra water break.
The nights are almost as bad. We sat outdoors at a bar that never faces the direction of any breeze coming through, and they never bothered to place fans at their outdoor tables. That was HOT. The humidity was crazy. I didn't even feel like having a beer or stay longer when it was so uncomfortable. When we went through the MCE/KPE to Punggol Park at 6pm, the car thermometer read 39°C for the outside temperature. Wow.
Our weather has always been hot and hotter. Hot as hell? Oh yeah. Here, Singapore. Our weather is hell. However, these two weeks have been utterly diabolical. I try not turn on the air-conditioning in the day. But I find myself turning on three fans — one ceiling and two standing just to not sit dripping in perspiration. Luckily housework isn't too sweaty; I can finish it fairly quickly and go shower. Exercising outdoors is highly uncomfortable. My sun hat, sunglasses and sunblock are my best friends.
If 2019 was the hottest year on record, then 2020 would have beat it, and 2021 is beating it hands down. If we're to hit 40°C in 2045, I think we might get there earlier. Singapore heats up twice as fast as the rest of the world on the average because we're literally feeling the effects as an 'urban heat island' (UHI). UHI has been thrown up for years, but it seems as though it's only being paid full attention now, when we feel the heat and weather patterns change.
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| Image and explanation from NASA ClimateKids. |
I don't even know how our efforts to mitigate the UHI effect are going to mean anything when we simply turn to air-conditioning as the solution. I'm guilty of that too. I cannot sleep without air-conditioning. As a country, we'll still have to try. Our architects and space planners will have to factor in a lot more green spaces than what we currently have. Yet we're decimating our last forests to build high-rise buildings to house more people. Hello, haven't the events of the pandemic taught planners and policy-makers anything about the population density in this city that is in ratio to making viruses very happy?
Monsoons and inter-monsoons? I feel like we're in a permanent monsoon all year round. When it storms, it floods. That's a given. Our flora and fauna are suffering, and when they can't survive, we're in trouble. Are there people who don't believe in climate change and think that it's all a hoax? Well... of course there are. I just hope they're not in key policy-making positions or lead powerful organizations that expends fossil fuels even faster.
We're at the tail end of the Southwest Monsoon, going into that inter-monsoon before the arrival of the Northeast Monsoon in December. So the Meteorological Service forecasts more hot days and also thundery showers for the rest of the inter-monsoon period. Squalls incoming I suppose. I hate these Sumatran squalls that typically arrive in the pre-dawn hours. Man, I need my sleep. Grrrrrrrr.
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