NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Worst dry spell in 29 years
From correspondents in Singapore
21feb05
SINGAPORE is suffering its worst dry spell in 29 years,
sparking rare bushfires in the densely populated city
state and cranking the island's air-conditioners into
overdrive.
Firefighters have fought 388 bushfires since January 1.
That compares with 355 for all of 2003 and 500 last year,
Singapore's Civil Defence Force said.
The biggest engulfed vacant land the size of about 15
soccer fields on February 17.
The National Environment Agency said temperatures have
reached a high of 34C almost daily since January 20,
with February 9 - the first day of the Lunar New Year -
hitting 35.5C, the hottest day in 15 years.
THE DROUGHT AND US
Bloody typical! Could only happen to us!
Here we are, in Singapore, currently in the grip of a
massive drought,and yet everywhere we go we manage to get
drenched by heavy downpours.It makes us feel like we're
Rain God Man from one of Douglas Adam's"Hitchhiker
Triology".
In fact, we wouldn't have guessed there was a drought
except for taxi drivers all talking about it and how
embarrassed they were by the lack of green - but we
didn't notice because everything looked wonderful to us.
It's definitely a garden city. Beautiful place.
However, it seemed really odd to us how all the taxi
drivers talked about how no one had seen rain in months
and there's Keith and me with straggly dripping hair and
damp clothes going "We're the only ones who didn't want
it and the only ones who got it."
But I guess if only a few places saw rain, the Botanical
Gardens were the most deserving so I'm glad we got drenched
there rather than, say, the Art Museum.
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