For the last few weeks in Korea, the weather has been extremely severe cold with record low in 15 years. One day in the last week was minus 18 degree Celsius with wind chill temperature of around minus 25 degree Celsius. The main reason for this severe coldness was global warming which sound weird to ordinary people. Most people in Korea during the last weekend stayed at home without going outside due to the icy blast.

In general, a band of jet stream blocks the cold air flowing from the North Pole. But in this winter, the glacier layers have been melted much more and faster than before, so the power of blocking by jet stream became weaker than normal. Also, there is the Ural mountain chain that divides Asia and Europe, which makes the weak jet stream wavy around the Ural mountain chain.  Korea is located in northeast Asia, which coincidentally became in the middle of severe cold air pushed by the jet stream expansion due to the Ural mountain chain. There were not only Korea, but also other countries such as Turkey, Rumania and America, all of which were experiencing record cold snap.

* reference: www.sbs.co.kr