South Korea records its hottest temperature in 122 years of weather observation
The city of Yangsan hit 42.5C on Sunday, the highest since Korea began keeping modern weather records in 1904. More than 20 localities are under a new emergency heatwave alert as heat related illness cases climb past 1,800 since mid-May.
South Korea recorded its hottest day in history on Sunday, August 2, when Yangsan in South Gyeongsang Province reached 42.5C, the highest temperature since national weather records began in 1904. It was the fifth consecutive day the city topped 40C. The Korea Meteorological Administration says overlapping high pressure systems, the North Pacific High and the Tibetan High, combined with below-average monsoon rainfall and Yangsan's heat-trapping mountain basin to drive the extreme reading. More than 20 localities are under a newly introduced emergency heatwave alert, Seoul was raised to the country's second-highest heat warning, and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has logged over 1,800 heat-related illness cases since mid-May, including 13 deaths. Korea's average number of heatwave days per year has more than doubled over the past five years compared with the 1970s.