5 Times The Sky In Singapore Made Us Go "Wow!"

Singapore's weather is either sibei hot or a bit cold: the sun shines mercilessly and rain falls here and there sometimes. Not sure if suay or not, but we have no four seasons.

Yes, yes, the weather in Singapore might be perceived by some as boring, but... just when we think the weather here is a bit one-note, the skies decide to get a little funky and create #instaworthy moments, like the ones in our list below.

As we always proclaim at Wonderwall.sg: "Be wowed by the wonder of home", or in this case, our skies!

9 layer kueh-esque rainbows

Happened on: 1 Jun 2020

Back when this pair of rainbows appeared in the middle 2020, on the last day of the Circuit Breaker, it was perceived as a literal beam of hope for many Singaporeans. We've kept our guard up and done well so far in the fight against COVID-19. Yay Singapore!

22 on 22

Happened on: 22 Sep 2020

In September 2020, a large halo appeared around the sun and many in Singapore stopped to take some #instaworthy shots. Scientists termed this a "22-degree halo" because the ring formed around the sun has a radius of approximately 22 degrees. The phenomenon was caused by sunlight refracting through the ice crystals and at just the right angle, it caused us to see the halo. Coincidentally, it happened on 22 Sep (hence 22 on 22). Spooky hor 

The Singapore storm yesterday!! from r/singapore

End-of-the-world storm clouds

Happened on: 3 Nov 2020

Omg, remember these clouds that looked like they could swallow up Singapore whole. In the HDB areas, you would normally hear people shouting "Loh hor liao!" (Hokkien for "It's going to rain"). Everyone would rush to keep their laundry and alert others by shouting across at their neighbours. The #kampungspirit is still strong even now. But for sure, some saw this and went "die liao" instead.

Thicc lightning bolt

Happened on: 15 Nov 2020

Many of us cover our ears when we see lightning because booming thunder often comes next. But for Audrey Phoon, she remained unfazed and managed to capture a scarily beautiful shot of lightning streaking down from the sky. Remember to stay safe and take shelter because statistically speaking, you would have a higher chance of being struck by lightning than striking 4D or TOTO.

The Christmas Star - Jupiter Saturn Conjunction 2020 from r/singapore

A Christmas star

On 21 Dec, the night of the winter solstice, the two largest planets in the solar system appeared to merge in the night sky. This uber rare phenomenon is a result of the closest visible conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in nearly 800 years. Usually known as a "great conjunction", it's also been called the "Christmas star" because it happened so close to Christmas on 25 Dec.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jeremy Ratnam (@power98jeremy)

Wonderwall.sg reader and self-confessed amateur astronomer Jeremy Ratnam had gathered his four children (who are equally passionate about celestial objects and events) at Changi Beach Park to witness this event that was, as his Instagram caption says, "800 years in the making in 8 minutes".

"There was just a 5- to 10-minute window of opportunity. After that the clouds rolled in. I waited for almost an hour after that window of opportunity – it never got better," says a disappointed Jeremy, who used a Sony RX100V DSLR to capture the picture above.

"Can you believe it? Only one picture was solid!"

Thanks, Jeremy, for capturing that moment and sharing it with us. Here's to more heavenly wonders appearing in Singapore's skies!

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