Singapore Natural Environment

Singapore is an island, just north of the equator, which is somewhat diamond-shaped, with the distance from the east to the west being greater than that from the north to the south.  It takes less than an hour to go from the east to the west by car on the expressway running across Singapore, and about 30 minutes from the north to the south via the Central Expressway.

It has a total land area of about 700 square kilometers and  is separated from the southern-most state of Malaysia, Johor, by a narrow strip of sea called the Straits of Johor.  In the south, it is separated from Indonesia by the Singapore Strait.  Much of the island is no more than 15 meters above sea level; during extreme high tide, heavy rain and strong currents, part of the coastal area could be flooded.  Some of the hills which were there in the past have been flattened to provide soil for land reclamation.

Apart from the main island, Singapore has a few small islands mainly off the south and southern coast.  One of them, Sentosa, has been developed for leisure and recreation and is frequented by locals and visitors.

Although Singapore is close to Indonesia, which is an earthquake prone country, it has not been hit by earthquakes because it is far enough from fault lines.  However, parts of Singapore are occasionally hit by tremors when there is seimic activity in the region.  These tremors can cause buildings (and people) to sway, but have not caused any injuries or property damage.

Singapore is just one degree north of the equator; therefore it is generally hot year-round, with maximum day-time temperature at about 33 degrees celcius or more, and the night-time temperature at the low 20-degree range.  Although Singapore does not have the four seasons, the temperatures from November to February tend to be lower (at a high of 28 or 29 degrees), and even some trees shed their leaves at that time probably because they were not home grown and could still remember where they came from.

Rainy seasons are brought by the north-east monsoon which comes in from the South China Sea from December to March, and by the south-east monsoon from the Indian Ocean from June to September.  Rains can be heavy during these periods.  However, rain can be quite localised even though Singapore is small, and the eastern part tends to be drier than the west.  Also, one can sometimes find one side of the street with rain, but the other side without.