Students and parents wearing winter jackets arrive at an elementary school in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, on Oct. 22.NEWS1
A brief cold snap brought the season’s first frost to parts of Korea on Thursday. Temperatures are expected to rebound Friday afternoon, but a late-season typhoon churning toward the country’s southern waters could bring rain as well.
An influx of cold air from the north drove Seoul's morning temperature down to 5.2 degrees Celsius (41.4 degrees Fahrenheit), the lowest recorded in the capital this autumn, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). Temperatures on Mount Seorak in Gangwon fell to minus 6.6 degrees Celsius. The apparent temperature dropped to minus 11 degrees Celsius.
North Chuncheon in Gangwon recorded its first frost and ice of the season, six days earlier than last year and one day ahead of the historical average. The first frost was also observed in Andong, North Gyeongsang.
Cold wave advisories were issued for several inland areas.
Temperatures are expected to remain below 20 degrees Celsius across most of Korea on Thursday. Seoul’s daytime high is forecast to be 16 degrees Celsius.
Morning lows across Korea are forecast to range from 3 to 15 degrees Celsius on Friday as the cold snap continues.
“The cold will continue through Friday morning, but temperatures are expected to rise again in the afternoon,” said Kang Hye-mi, a forecast analyst at the KMA, during a regular briefing Thursday. “Temperatures will gradually climb through the rest of this week and rise above seasonal averages before falling again next week.”
Rain is expected to begin across southern Korea and Jeju Island on Friday night. By Sunday afternoon, the rain could spread to parts of the Chungcheong region.
The projected path of typhoon No. 30, named Champi, as of Oct. 22KOREA METEOROLOGICAL ADMINISTRATION
The forecast hinges on the trajectory of Typhoon Champi, the season's 30th typhoon.
Champi was about 710 kilometers (441 miles) southeast of Taipei, Taiwan, as of 9 a.m. Thursday, and was tracking west-northwest at 14 kilometers per hour (8.7 miles per hour). The storm, which had intensified into a Category 5 super typhoon, has since weakened to Category 4.
Category 4 denotes typhoons with peak gusts of 44 to 53 meters per second (98 to 118.5 miles per hour), while Category 5, the highest intensity level, applies to storms with gusts of at least 54 meters per second.
Champi is forecast to turn northeast off Taiwan, pass through waters south of Jeju on Sunday and make landfall on Japan's Kyushu Island.
Waters off the southern regions of Korea could fall within the typhoon's wind field, which may prompt authorities to issue typhoon advisories or warnings. That would make Champi the latest typhoon in the calendar year to affect Korea. The country first began tracking such storms in 1952.
The outlook could change depending on how quickly Champi moves and whether it follows its forecast track. The typhoon could instead pass over Taiwan, lose strength and leave behind a mass of moisture.
“Changes in the typhoon's path could cause the rain to end sooner than expected or last into Monday afternoon,” Kang said. “We urge air travelers to check for flight updates.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
