[September Thematic Report] The Extreme Weather of South Koreaby Seojin Lee | 03-10-2022 17:19 |
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I am lucky to say that I have not experienced much extreme weather before. A part of it is because the city I grew up in, Seoul, usually does not have extreme weather occurrences. For instance, even minor earthquakes are quite rare; tornadoes are unheard of. The most extreme weather would be heavy snowfall, rainfall, or severe air pollution. However, it was this very summer that I had my first extreme weather experience in Seoul. Because of Seoul's location, the city has a monsoon season during the summer months. While a monsoon season consists of frequent rainfall, it does not necessarily lead to extremely heavy rainfall. Yet, this summer was different. For the first time in decades, Seoul experienced so much rain that it led to multiple flooding events throughout the city. The rainfall was so severe that the city was said to experience the most precipitation in the history of its weather records since 1920. Numerous streets were flooded, and the news was covered with flood incidents. It was the first time my school had canceled school due to flooding incidents in the city. The flooding was so intense that even the most affluent, busy district-Gangnam-also experienced major flooding. It was shocking to see the main streets and subway systems flooded from the rainfall. While a reason for flooding was said to result from how close the district and neighborhoods are to the Han River, it is a fact that the unexpected amount of rainfall is a consequence of global warming. The precipitation amount was certainly an outlier in the history of rainfall in Seoul, and the drastic change in the climate certainly played a key role. Reportings of extreme weather such as the flooding in Seoul definitely serve as a wake-up call for us to take action and fight global warming. Source: https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220809000685
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