ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – Since the evening of January 10, 18 flights that were supposed to land at Singapore’s Changi and Seletar airports were diverted to neighbouring airfields due to the heavy rain.
Changi Airport Group (CAG), which operates both airports, told The Straits Times that 12 flights due to land at Changi Airport were diverted, while six flights that were landing at Seletar Airport were also redirected to other airports. The prolonged rainy weather caused by the ongoing monsoon surge led to Changi clocking the highest total amount of rainfall, at 255.2millimetre (mm), over January 10 and 11, surpassing Singapore’s monthly average rainfall of 222.4mm in January, according to national water agency PUB.
A monsoon surge is a sudden increase in wind speeds that causes cold air to rush southwards over the South China Sea. ST earlier reported that more than 50 Singapore Airlines flights on January 10 and 11 were delayed or retimed because of the bad weather.
Flash flood warnings were also issued for the period between January 10 and 13, as PUB warned that the heavy downpours may overwhelm the city’s canals and drains temporarily, triggering sudden and localised floods. Temperatures fell to 21.6 degrees Celcius (C) in Newton on the morning of January 11, nearly matching the lowest temperature of 21.4C in 2024.
