Climatology and Climate Studies

The Climatology and Climate Studies (CCS) Section is the national custodian of Singapore’s long term climate records.  Its primary role is to collect, quality control and archive weather observations, and to develop an infrastructure such that these data can be easily provided to the community, industry and government.   The mission of CCS is to provide a high quality climatological service for the nation, and to carry out local climate studies to improve understanding of the changes in the tropical weather and climate for the benefit of decision-makers and the community.

The meteorological observations are necessary for the production of operational weather forecasts, and their long term records are essential in the study of Singapore’s climate trends.  CCS is primarily a production house that quality controls and generates on-demand, climate reports and weather assessments for the public, the private sector and government agencies.  These are used for a variety of purposes such as insurance claims, police investigations and court cases.  In addition, CCS also prepares replies to media queries pertaining to our local climate and its trend.

CCS plans to consolidate its climatological records into a single archival and display system, which would also include automatic quality control checks.  The aim is to provide ease of access to good quality climate data and also to improve the efficiency in producing the required climate statistics and summaries.  The key summary of climate statistics is included in the Annual Climate Summary, which will be produced at the beginning of the calendar year and provides a detailed documentation of Singapore’s climate in the previous year.

Working with the Climate Modelling and Prediction Section of CCRS, starting in 2015 CCS will also produce an annual report on the State of the Climate for Singapore, putting the year’s weather and climate into the context of historical observations, highlighting the severity of any major dry spell, heavy rain or trans-boundary smoke haze events affecting Singapore, as well as putting it into the context of climate change.

The work in the climate studies area of CCS builds on its data collection and archiving activities and provides studies that can underpin the wider research agenda.    The main aim of this part of the work is to monitor, document and assess local climatic trends and changes in the drivers of climate over the region. This section ties in closely with the work plan on ‘Understanding Weather and Climate Processes,’ which focuses on understanding the basic drivers of the weather and climate system over Southeast Asia with the aim of improving predictions from NWP to seasonal and longer time scales.  It will also document statistical relationships that can underpin the wider research agenda.