Singapore Geography & Climate

Singapore covers about 735 square kilometres at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, one degree north of the equator, separated from Malaysia by the Johor Strait and from Indonesia’s Riau islands by the Singapore Strait.

Land that was made

The country is roughly a quarter larger than it was at independence, from about 580 square kilometres to 735, and intends to keep growing. Reclamation built Marina Bay, most of the eastern coast, Jurong Island and the container terminals, using sand imported in such quantities that several neighbours have banned its export. It is the single most consequential fact about Singapore’s geography.

Low and flat

The highest point, Bukit Timah, is 163 metres. The centre holds a granite core with the catchment reservoirs; the west is sedimentary and industrial; the east is largely reclaimed sand.

Water

There are no significant rivers and no aquifer worth the name. Supply comes from four sources the government calls the national taps: local catchment, imported water from Johor under agreements that expire in 2061, desalination, and recycled water branded NEWater. This is treated as a matter of national security, not utilities policy.

Green cover

Despite the density, roughly half the island is under vegetation, the result of a planting policy running since the 1960s. Fragments of primary rainforest survive at Bukit Timah, and mangrove at Sungei Buloh.

The other islands

Some sixty of them, including Sentosa, Jurong Island — seven islets merged into a petrochemical complex — and Pulau Ubin, left largely undeveloped.

Singapore has a tropical rainforest climate, one degree from the equator, which means the weather is essentially the same all year and the concept of a season does not apply.

Temperature

Daily highs sit around 31 to 33°C and lows around 25 to 26°C, with very little variation between months — the difference between the warmest and coolest month averages barely more than a degree. Relative humidity runs around 80 per cent and often higher, which is what makes it feel heavier than the numbers suggest.

Rain

Around 2,200 millimetres a year, falling in every month. It usually arrives as a sudden, extremely heavy downpour that lasts half an hour and then stops, rather than as persistent grey. Carry an umbrella and do not build a day around avoiding it.

The monsoons

The north-east monsoon from November to March brings the wettest months, especially December, with longer spells of rain and slightly cooler mornings. The south-west monsoon from June to September is drier, with morning squalls known as Sumatra squalls arriving off the strait before dawn.

Haze

In some years between June and October, smoke from land-clearing fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan pushes air quality into unhealthy ranges for days or weeks. The index is published hourly and masks are sold everywhere when it happens.

Air conditioning as national policy

Lee Kuan Yew was once asked to name the most important invention of the millennium and answered, without irony, air conditioning — on the grounds that it was what made sustained productive work possible in the tropics, and that the first thing he did in government was install it in the civil service. Whatever one makes of the claim, it explains a great deal about how the city is built and why almost every interior is kept cold.

Living with it

Everything indoors is air-conditioned to the point of being cold, so carry a light layer — the temperature swing between a street and a shopping centre is the thing visitors underestimate.