Weather Forecast 2016 Malaysia Grand Prix
This season‘s 16th race will also take place in Southeast Asia. In Malaysia track conditions are mostly hot and humid, and the Malaysian Grand Prix is particularly challenging for both drivers and cars.
For the third time in the history of the Malaysian Grand Prix, the race will be held in October instead of March or April. Given the geographical position of the track - only a few hundreds kilometers from the Equator - this has almost no impact in terms of temperature variation and sunshine duration, but it does matter when it comes to weather patterns and forecasts.
In fact, during the latter part of September, Malaysia is exiting the South-West Monsoon season to enter the "Inter-Monsoon" period, while at the end of March the North-East Monsoon is gradually coming to an end. Apart from an obvious change in the wind direction on a greater scale, this basically leads to a different timing and intensity regarding daily thunderstorms activity over the track.
During October, strong thunderstorms tend to be much more probable in the overnight hours, when lines of showers and gusty winds approach Malaysia from the west. Furthermore, the typical afternoon convection is generally weaker.
It is not necessarily bounded to sea breezes or orography and has its maximum earlier in the day compared to March or April. This leads to an increased amount of dry and hot days and slightly harder times for our meteorologists, with afternoon showery activity being less intense and predictable this year.
The weather for the following race weekend will confirm these climate facts, with overnight showers possible especially on Friday and Saturday and generally partly cloudy skies throughout the weekend. The afternoon convection will likely increase with the time, with Sunday being the most unsettled day of the three.
A wet race is therefore not excluded at this time. Due to the tropical weather, the drivers will also face an increased amount of physical stress at the Sepang circuit, with highs ranging between 32 and 34 C accompanied by high relative humidity.
(source: ubimet.com)
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