Flash floods across Singapore on Saturday after heavy rain
High water levels seen in Bukit Timah on April 17, 2021.
PHOTO: ROADS.SG/FACEBOOK
PUBLISHED ONApril 18, 2021 1:50 AM
Heavy rain on Saturday (April 17) afternoon caused flash floods across Singapore, with a number of pavements flooded in the western and central areas.
These included those in Dunearn Road near Sime Darby Centre, and the park connector along Ulu Pandan Canal due to the high water levels in adjacent drains and canals.
Netizens took to social media to post videos and photos of flooded roads and canals in Queenstown, Bukit Timah and Ulu Pandan.
At around 4.45pm on Saturday, national water agency PUB updated in a Facebook post that traffic remained passable in these areas.
PUB had deployed its quick response teams to affected locations to help drivers and pedestrians, it said.
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The prolonged heavy rain had caused water levels in several drains and canals to exceed 90 per cent capacity.
Since noon, PUB had been issuing flood risk warnings for over 20 locations, including Sime Darby Centre, Bukit Timah Canal (Leng Kwang Baptist Church), Ulu Pandan Canal and Sungei Pandan Kechil (NUS and AYE).
PUB said western Singapore recorded the heaviest rainfall of 161.4mm from 12.25pm to 3.25pm.
This corresponds to 91 per cent of Singapore's average monthly rainfall in April, and lies within the top 0.5 per cent of maximum daily rainfall records since 1981.
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On Friday, the Meteorological Service Singapore said there would be more rain over the next two weeks, with thundery showers and gusty winds forecast for the earlier part of the fortnight.
The storms are expected to land before dawn and later in the morning, and are due in part to a large-scale convergence of winds that are predicted to develop over the region in the next week.
Lighter winds will kick in during the latter part of the fortnight but there will also be moderate to heavy thunderstorms with frequent lightning strikes in the afternoon.
It added that overall, the rainfall in April is forecast to be above average over most parts of the island.
High water levels seen outside The Cascadia condominium in Bukit Timah on April 17, 2021. PHOTOS: ST READER
The first two weeks of April saw thundery showers in the afternoon on most days over parts of the island due to heating from the sun, although overall temperature was still high.
There were 12 days in this period when the daily maximum temperature exceeded 34 deg C with the highest coming on April 2, when 36.3 deg C was recorded in Ang Mo Kio.