My cousin Ann is getting married at the end of the year & had her wedding photoshoot on 4 July. In Singapore, a lot of wedding couples opt to have a photo shoot consisting of both indoor shots in the studio & outdoor shots in various locations around the island. Ann informed me that she was bringing 7 BAGS of outfits (a mix of evening wear plus her wedding dress) to the shoot. (D was quite shocked when I told him, well at least I spared him having to endure that many changes during our wedding).

Anyway, she was very anxious about whether she was going to get good weather on that day, & kept bugging me for a forecast months in advance. She was going to have photos taken in 4 locations : her old home in Malcolm Rd, the SJI chapel, her new apartment & at Sentosa.

I told her July (which is during the Southwest monsoon) is usually quite a dry month, & gave her 3 possible scenarios.

1. Dry & fair day.

2. Some showers in the late morn/early afternoon, which would fizzle out in an hours' time or so

or, if she was very unlucky,

3. "Sumatra". This is a nickname for a thunderstorm squall line that usually develops over Sumatra (in Indonesia) & then moves across the Malacca Straits to Singapore. It brings torrential rain, & can last for a couple of hours.

What I didn't tell her was that things aren't always clear-cut when it comes to weather, & that frankly anything could happen. Also, we had a wetter than usual June this year.

She kept SMSing me after that for updates, as the day loomed nearer & nearer. Since I'm on leave & couldn't check the data in the office for her, I had to ask D to do it. As 4 July approached, he said the 3rd looked wet, but the 4th looked ok so far. To allay her fears, I told her I'd check the radar online for her early in the morning.

In the end, everything turned out fine ... radar images showed no echoes & it was a pretty hot day. She sent me some of the photos when it was over. I like this one the most :