Children play in a fountain at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Aug. 6.YONHAP
The greater Seoul area is expected to experience temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday. While the extreme heat may ease somewhat over the weekend, temperatures at heat wave warning levels are forecast to persist into next week.
“Seoul has continued to see clear skies as a high-pressure system extending through the upper atmosphere remains over the country,” Lee Gwang-yeon, a forecast analyst at the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), said during a regular briefing on Thursday. “Very hot weather is expected to continue through [Friday], especially in western regions.”
Seoul had reached 33.9 degrees Celsius as of 11 a.m. on Thursday, when the daytime high is expected to climb to 39 degrees Celsius. Some parts of greater Seoul may potentially exceed 40 degrees Celsius.
The KMA also issued additional extreme heat emergency warnings on Thursday for Hoengseong, Chuncheon and Hongcheon in Gangwon; Jeonju in North Jeolla; and eastern Gwangju.
The extreme heat emergency warning is the highest level of the country’s heat wave alert system and was introduced this year.
Seoul to reach 36 degrees Celsius this weekend
The extreme heat is expected to ease over the weekend. The Tibetan High in the upper atmosphere and the North Pacific High in the middle and lower atmosphere, which together created the heat dome over the Korean Peninsula, are expected to weaken as the link between the two systems breaks down.
“The connection between the middle- and lower-level high-pressure system and the upper-level high-pressure system is weakening, causing the center of the high-pressure system to shift northwest,” Lee said. “Rain is expected along the east coast, and solar radiation will weaken somewhat in other regions.”
A heat haze rises above a road in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, on Aug. 5.NEWS1
Seoul’s daytime high is forecast to fall to 36 degrees Celsius over the weekend, about 3 degrees less than its Thursday daytime high. Even so, conditions are expected to remain hot enough to meet the heat wave warning criteria.
Along Gangwon’s east coast, more than 120 millimeters (4.7 inches) of rain could fall on Saturday.
Hot weather of around 35 degrees Celsius is expected to continue next week under the influence of the North Pacific High.
“Temperatures at heat wave warning levels or higher will continue into next week,” Lee said.
Typhoon likely to make landfall in China
There had been uncertainty over whether Typhoon Dolphin, the season’s 13th named storm, would pass over Korea and bring rain and lower temperatures or bypass the country.
With the typhoon now likely to head toward China, Korea may not see the rainfall or cooler temperatures that a direct passage could have brought.
Typhoon Dolphin as captured by the Cheollian-2A weather satelliteKOREA METEOROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
Dolphin was moving west at 24 kilometers per hour (15 miles per hour) over waters about 560 kilometers (384 miles) east of Okinawa, Japan, as of 9 a.m. on Thursday. The storm had a central pressure of 955 hectopascals and maximum sustained winds of 40 meters per second (89 miles per hour). It remained a powerful Level 3 strength system under the KMA’s five-tier classification.
Dolphin is expected to pass over Okinawa on Friday before continuing west and likely making landfall south of Shanghai around Monday.
As a result, Korea is not expected to come under the typhoon’s direct influence.
“There is still a possibility of another round of intense heat as the atmospheric pressure pattern reorganizes after the typhoon makes landfall,” Woo Jin-gyu, an analyst at the KMA, said. “It is too early to say that the peak of this heat wave has passed.”
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.
