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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Singapore in grip of record dry spell

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http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/spore-grip-record-dry-spell?singlepage=true

The Republic has experienced its longest ever dry spell of 27 days over these past two months, beating the previous record of 18 days set in 2008, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said.

The dry phase of the Northeast Monsoon season, which Singapore and countries in the region are experiencing, had set in earlier this year, compared with previous years and will probably persist into the first half of next month.

Before showers fell in some parts of the island on the weekend of Feb 8 and 9, less than 1mm of rain had fallen on any day between Jan 13 and Feb 8.

To maintain water levels in the reservoirs, national water agency PUB last week increased the amount of NEWater it injects into the reservoirs to 30 million gallons per day (mgd). The desalination and NEWater plants are also running at close to full capacity. NEWater and desalination can meet up to 30 per cent and 25 per cent of Singapore’s water needs, respectively.

The NEA yesterday said in an advisory that the dry weather conditions have caused “a number of vegetation fires in Singapore over the past weeks”. “These fires could possibly have contributed to the burning smell detected in some areas,” the agency added.

Increased rainfall can be expected with the onset of the Inter-Monsoon in the second half of next month, the NEA said.

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