Here are the answers to your questions...
> Is it ever hot?
It is always hot! Most days the temperature is 86 degrees Farenheit / 30 degrees Celcius. This is like a very hot summer day in England.
> Do you have rain showers?
Yes we sometimes have very heavy showers with lots of lightening and thunder! It can rain so hard that within 2 hours, all the streets are flooded. But usually the rain isn't that bad! Some days the rain is funny: it can be dry on one side of the street and across the street it is raining! They call this "micro-showers" – it happens quite a lot.
This link tells you where it is raining in Singapore RIGHT NOW: Click Here
> Do you still wear T-shirts and shorts in the winter?
There is no winter – only summer! I can wear shorts every day. The only difference in seasons is that some times of the year it rains more than others. But when it rains you do not wear a rain coat: that is too hot! You just carry an umbrella. Sometimes when the rain is very heavy and it soaks my shoes, I take them off and walk through the puddles in my bare feet... I can do this any time of the year because the ground is never cold. I even do this in my work clothes so my friends think I'm quite mad.
This chart one shows you that it's a lot hotter in Singapore but the temperature doesn't change much during the year but in London in changes a lot from summer to winter:
Even the coldest times in Singapore are hotter than the hottest times in London.
> Are there a lot of trees and flowers there?
Yes there are all different types. There are many nice flowers you can see year round. We have palm trees and also normal trees with leaves (although the government here likes to plant trees that don't shed their leaves so they don't make a mess). The only trees we don't have are pine trees which only grow in colder places.
You can see lots of orchid flowers here: this is a flower that is very rare in England but here you find them growing in the park!
Orchids in the Singapore Botanical Garden
> Which months is your summer?
January - December
> Which months is your winter?
Actually there is no winter. Every day is the same – hot! There is a rainy season we call "The Monsoon" but that just means it rains every day for a few hours. Otherwise not much is different.
> Is it humid there?
Yes it is very humid. London is also quite humid but you don't seem to notice the humidity as much when it's not hot. Here you feel like you are in a sauna some times... but you get used to it. Humid air is very good for your skin so some of the people who have lived here their whole lives can look quite young even when they
are old. That hasn't worked for me yet but I'm hoping.
>How cold does it get in degrees?
Usually it doesn't go below 26C. I read that the coldest temperature on record is 19C.
> Does it ever snow?
No. In fact most children who live here have never even seen snow except on TV. Many people can live their whole lives and never visit a place with snow.
>How much rain falls in a year?
We get 2275 millimeters of rain every year. In London the average
is 595 mm every year. That means we get about 4 times as much rain as London.
But when it rains it rains very hard then stops... it never drizzles all day
like in the UK. We have big thunder storms and then the sun comes out!
This charts compares the rainfall of Singapore with London:
> Is the weather always the same or is it changeable?
The weather is mostly the same every day. Some days have more rain than others
but otherwise it's about the same.
> Do you have storms or extreme weather?
We can have strong thunder storms but we don't get hurricanes or typhoons like in other parts of the world. The kids never get a day off school for bad weather!
> Do you go to the beach often?
Actually because there is so much sun here, people don't really like to go to the beach! They like to hide indoors. I remember hearing a kid say one day "Yay it's cloudy today!" He was happy there was no sun! That's quite different than in the UK!
Usually I try hide from the sun too. But today I had to go to the park and now
my arms are all sunburned.
> What type of fruit is grown there?
Wow! That's a hard question to answer because there are so many different types of fruit and many you never see in England. We get all the normal fruits that you know - these are imported from places like Australia: Apples, Oranges, Pears, Berries. But then there are all the local fruits: Rambutan, Durian, Mangosteen, Jackfruit, Longan, Lychee, Mango,
Chiku, Dragon Fruit, Pomelo
...
This web page describes all the different fruits here: Link: http://ash-hotel.com/siam/fruit.htm
Mangosteen:
|
Rambutan: |
Dragon Fruit
|
Jackfruit |
Durian |
Mango |
> What time does it start going dark?
Because we live on the equator, the sun rises and sets at almost the same time every day of the year:
it rises at 7:23am and sets at 7:23pm. There may be a few minutes difference from one month to the next but not much.
Singapore
Take Care,
Miss Bossy
PS: Here are more pictures from Singapore: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/singapore/