Monday, January 10, 2011

UV Index & Singapore

I was thinking why I felt so hot yesterday PM even though the temperature shown as 28C. Then I was told by my friend that the "feel" is cumulative of lot of issues such as humidity, UV, wind etc. We went to accuweather and realized that they have a good parameter "ReelFeel" to show how hot we feel. The temp even now is 28C but the ReelFeel is 35C.

There I found the UV index and started googling for this. I realized that UV index is 'supposed' to be important and I tried to find more important. To my surprise I coudlnt find any info from Singapore but most of the stuff from US & UN.

From wikipedia:

The UV index is an international standard measurement of how weak the ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun is at a particular place on a particular day. It is a scale primarily used in daily forecasts aimed at the general public.
8-10 : Very high risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure/Wear SPF 15+ sunscreen, a shirt, sunglasses, and a hat. Do not stay out in the sun for too long.
11+ : Extreme risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure/Take all precautions, including: wear sunglasses and use SPF 15+ sunscreen, cover the body with a long-sleeve shirt and trousers, wear a very broad hat, and avoid the sun from two hours before to three hours after solar noon.

Here is a table showing the summary of UV index across the world.

Source: WHO

Based on this, Singapore gets lots of UV and most of the time it's in the "red zone" in UV index.

Then I tried to see from Gov websites but I cant find detailed information either in NEA website or in http://www.weather.gov.sg. The latter has a paragraph explaining about what is UV index but not in great details.

AsiaOne published a great article in the past which can be found here

I know lots of sun is not good and UV is dangerous to kids and some adults. But I see many kids in the sub for longer durations and I really wish that NEA can do educate people to be careful and take necessary precautions.

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