Australia vs Singapore: Chapter 1, Weather

Australia (Perth) vs Singapore: Chapter 1, Weather

Since this is the Month of Libra, I will dedicate this series to two good people I know, one having her birthday today and the other, will be celebrating his first birthday as a father tomorrow.


Happy birthday, old farts. And I love both of you.


I have never tried doing a straight comparison between Australia and Singapore through these 2 years because it is simply impossible to do an objective one based on the perspectives of a single man, so it brings little value to anyone who cannot related to my personal preferences. That means my own endeavour can be entirely different from the other Singaporean. Having said that, I'll try to keep subjectivity down to the minimum. A point to note, I have never traveled or worked in any parts of Australia except for Perth. So any information provided may not be a good representation of the whole Australia, the weather for example. If there are any comparisons that I missed out but you are interested in, leave a comment and I will do one. Eventually I will compile the comparisons on a single page with summaries and links to the main articles.

Weather
Australia: 

There are 4 seasons. 

Summer (Dec-Feb)
Autumn (Mar-May)
Winter (June-Aug)
Spring (Sep-Nov)


That makes Australia possibly the hottest country in the world during Christmas. That sucks. We are supposed to have dreamy magic winter wonderland during Christmas but we end up gasping for cold air instead. Other than that;


Autumn has the best weather, followed closely by Spring with cool 10ish °C nights and 20ish °C day. By the end of the first month of Autumn (March), the last of the evil flies will have reported to Hades. So the rest of the season will head towards the colder side until Winter arrives. Leaves will fall as the trees prepare for hibernation. The streets will either look romantic or depressing to you, depending on your moods of course. 


Winter is winter but as not winter as the eastern Australian states. It is very rare to go down to O°C in Perth at night, so normally it is ranges from 5°C to 15°C. In the day, it is around 10+ to low 20°C. Most Singaporeans struggle with winter during their first season but soon find it possible to stand barefoot on tiles. By their third year, they will be mediating on tiled floors during the coldest Winter nights instead of dancing. However some will not get over it and will eopted for timber flooring in their houses, using their wealth as a decoy to veil their inability to adapt to cold.


Spring is the opposite of Autumn. Flowers bloom, trees flourishes and the weather warms towards the end of Spring in contrast. The average temperature throughout the season seems to be similar but in the opposite order. The only slight difference is that Spring tends to be wetter.


Summer. I don't feel like talking about it.


Singapore: 

Tropical seasons all year round. It is either rainy and hot or sunny and hot. There isn't much variation though the weather tends to get cooler during the end of the year to early Jan-Feb. An annual haze festival is expected, amiably organised by our neighbour.


The way it rains is different. Think shower head for Perth and pressure hose for Singapore. Rain lasts much longer in Singapore.


In general, the weather in Singapore is wetter in comparison to Perth. The average relative humidity is much higher than Perth. So it is more likely to get skin problems related to humidity such as foot rot, ring worms in Singapore but we will be more prone to dry skin leading to skin cracks in the Perth weather. The mean annual temperature is definitely lower in Perth despite the high heat of Summer. Even during the worst Summer days, the nights are actually bearable at the range 15-25°C, due to rapid heat loss. The day and night temperature range of Singapore is narrow because heat transfer is way slower with high rise buildings.


Further readings, if you are into these.

2 comments:

  1. asingaporeanson writes...
    ["we will be more prone to dry skin leading to skin cracks in the Perth weather."]
    skin cracks in winter = poor peripheral circulation

    A chinese man(in his 50s?) I know related a story to me. He told me that he always knew when it was coming into winter because the skin in his hands and fingers should start to crack without fail. He told me this used to be an annual problem. He told me that after he had a 4-5 valve heart bypass surgery this no longer occured. He was telling me this story in the middle of a cold winter while showing me where the cracks on his hands and fingers used to appear.

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  2. Hi there

    Just to let you know that Winter in Perth is very unusual compared to the rest of Australian state capitals (except Darwin) as South WA weather is buffered by the warm Indian Ocean and tend not to have big swings in temperature in seasons or within a day.

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