Frequent fliers, holiday-makers, and bosses who like to travel overseas in December, please be patient as you wait for your luggage when you arrive back at Changi Airport.

Why? The monsoon season may cause some baggage delay.

The onset of Northeast Monsoon season

The Northeast Monsoon comprises of wet and dry phases, of which the wet phase has already started since late November and is expected to end in January.

According to a National Environmental Agency advisory, the first half of December is likely to experience wet weather conditions with a few days of moderate to heavy thunderstorms and occasional windy conditions.

With the rainy season comes the cool weather and other risks as well.

Wet weather risk and safety for ground handlers

Singapore has one of the highest occurrences of lightning activity in the world.

And when there is a lightning, the risks of injury does not only come from a direct strike but one can also be injured by "side flash".

This is where dangerous static electric discharge occurs when the workers are standing close to the aircraft and not in contact with any object.

In the event of a thunderstorm, ground handlers will have to temporarily stop the retrieval of baggage from the aircraft due to lightning risk. This can potentially lead to baggage delay.

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What constitutes a delay?

Under normal weather conditions, over nine in ten passengers get their luggages within 35 minutes after the aircraft parks.

So what is the probability of this delay occurring?

According to Changi Airport Group, bad weather has already led to 225 such cases of baggage delay in November, out of 14,971 arrival flights.

This is almost triple the average of 78 cases per month from January to October 2017.

In other words, there was a 1.5 percent chance last month that your baggage might be delayed.

In Singlish terms, this means that you are very suay (unlucky) if you see this cube on your luggage belt:

Changi ground staff activated

CAG’s ground operations staff will offer affected passengers refreshments such as bottled water, canned coffee, packet Milo and biscuits while they wait for their bags.

CAG has also upgraded space in the Baggage Claim Hall of Terminals 2 and 3 into arrival lounges, where passengers can rest and surf the net while they wait.

This storm in a teacup is taken very seriously, almost like a flight delay.

The next step could be to put up several large sign-posts directing the passengers to spend more time at the duty-free shop?

Top photo by Changi Airport Group

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