At least 16 dead as Seoul issues its first severe heat warning in its history
At least 16 people have died as South Korea has recorded its highest temperature ever, forcing Seoul to issue the first severe heat warning in its history.
The warning took effect across the capital, home to more than nine million people, at 11am on Tuesday local time, a day after it was first issued for parts of the city and the surrounding province of Gyeonggi.
Seoul was forecast to reach 38C on Tuesday and 37C for the three days after.
More than 2,000 people have been treated for heat-related illnesses since May, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Two elderly men died while working outdoors on Sunday. One was found collapsed in a greenhouse near Seoul and the other in the southern port city of Busan.
President Lee Jae Myung told officials on Tuesday to protect lives and inspect the power system as demand for air conditioning was set to climb.
“We need to make efforts for a fundamental overhaul of the national crisis system, since this extreme weather is becoming normal,” he said during a cabinet meeting.
Tourists wearing traditional Hanbok dresses use a parasol to shield from the sun at the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul (AFP/Getty)
The heat has been concentrated in the southeast, where Yangsan, an inland city in South Gyeongsang province, reached 42.5C on Sunday, the highest temperature measured in 122 years of observation in South Korea.
Goryeong, also in the southeast, reached 41.2C on Monday, and several places passed 41C. One district of Seoul recorded 39C.
The severe warning is part of a new system introduced on 1 June. It is triggered after a lesser warning runs for two days and the following day is forecast to feel like 38C or actual temperature crosses 39C.
By Monday, 217 of the country’s 235 land-based warning zones, or 92 per cent, were under some form of heat alert.
Forecasters attribute the heat to overlapping areas of high pressure sitting over the Korean peninsula under clear skies. The southeast is made hotter still by the foehn effect of air crossing a mountain range, warming up and drying as it descends the far side. The same mechanism is now pushing the heat west across the Taebaek and Sobaek ranges towards Seoul.
Authorities in the capital held an emergency meeting on Monday and sent nurses to check on up to 63,000 residents considered most at risk, among them elderly people and those with disabilities or long-term illnesses.
A fleet of 200 trucks is spraying almost 2,000km of roads with water, running up to six times every day in the worst-affected areas, while mist sprays are working around the city.
In North Gyeongsang province, officials are flying drones with loudspeakers and thermal cameras over crowded holiday spots to broadcast safety warnings.
Attention is also turning to people in the poorest housing, including “jjokbang”, small, single rooms rented by the month in older districts of Seoul that are often without air conditioning.
Extreme heat has gripped nearly all of East Asia. Japan recorded its first “cruelly hot day” last month after temperatures climbed past 40C in three cities, weeks after the weather agency introduced the term to warn people about dangerous heat.
Typhoon Dolphin, which was moving west towards the Japanese island of Okinawa on Monday, could shift the picture either way. Forecasters said a track towards eastern China would raise humidity and make the heat worse, while a path closer to the south of the peninsula would bring cloud, wind and rain, offering brief respite.
The storm is expected to weaken and come ashore as a category one or two typhoon.
Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and more intense as the climate warms. The number of days each year when South Korea’s temperature reaches at least 33C has more than doubled over the past five years to 19. The number was eight in the 1970s.
