For weeks, the talk surrounding the 15th round of the championship has centred around Singapore's supposed rain-filled climate and tropical downpours, which some will tell you happen on a daily basis.
This is far from the truth.
Clearly, Singapore's climate is not too different to that experienced in Sepang, so we already know the basics:
* Daytime temperature maxima of 32 degrees Celsius.
* Night-time temperatures dipping no lower than 24 degrees Celsius.
* Ever-present high humidity, around 75 to 90 percent.
Singapore is coming towards the end of its north-west monsoon season. During this time, some thundery downpours are possible early in the morning, and occasionally some light rain during the afternoons.
Detailed weather records for September this year show that, in Singapore City, rain has fallen (or has fallen in the hour preceding the scheduled start of track action) on only six days out of the 22 so far this month, during the hours when the circuit would be open to Formula One cars. On seven of these 22 days, thunder and lightning has been noted. However only one serious downpour has occurred all month, at midday on Friday 12th. There has been no rain in Singapore City during the last five days, in the hours scheduled for track action.
Moving forward to the forecasts for the week ahead, choice of reliable sources is unfortunately limited. Most of the well-known mainstream forecast sites struggle to produce a realistic forecast for tropical locations, covering their bases with high percentage chances of storms, just incase. Through careful research, the mainstream sites that truly reflect the actual rainfall chances in Singapore are Weather Underground, and weather-forecast.com.
Local meteorological agencies always provide the best up-to-date information, and this is certainly the case with Singapore's National Environment Agency, providing nowcasts and also forecasts up to three days ahead.
Throughout this week, morning and early afternoon showers are possible, but with a rise in convective potential energy anticipated during the weekend, showers may also fall during the evenings - although the chances of this happening on Friday and Saturday would appear to be low. Of the three weekends in September so far, only two out of nine weekend evenings (Friday to Sunday) have featured rain, equating to 22 percent.
Air temperatures will peak at 32 degrees Celsius in the afternoons, dropping slightly to around 27 degrees during on-track sessions, with track temperatures in the same high-twenties Celsius range.