Jung Da-hyun is a reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues in Korea, including foreign residents, education, environment and politics. Driven by a deep interest in people’s stories, she focuses on investigative and feature reporting through direct interviews and field coverage. She received the Amnesty International Korea Media Award for her “Deepfake Crisis at Schools” series. Reach her at dahyun08@koreatimes.co.kr. Always open to hearing your stories.
Korea records second-highest spring temperature this year
Pedestrians walk across a sun-baked crosswalk in Daegu, May 24, Yonhap.
By Jung Da-hyun
Korea experienced its second-highest spring temperatures on record, while the sea surface recorded its highest temperatures in a decade.
According to weather analysis results released by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), Wednesday, the average temperature in spring in the country from March to May this year was 13.2 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees Celsius higher than the average from 1990 to 2010.
This marks the second-highest spring temperature since 1973. Last year set the highest record at 13.5 degrees Celsius, while the year before recorded 13.2 degrees Celsius. If the temperatures are the same, the more recent record is given a higher rank.
This data indicates that the past three years have seen the hottest spring seasons on record.
In particular, from March to May, 72 out of 92 days were recorded as above-average temperatures, surpassing the previous record of 67 days in 2023.
Additionally, Korea's sea surface temperature reached 14.1 degrees Celsius, marking it as the highest in 10 years.
The KMA explained that the onset of this heat wave can be attributed to several factors — particularly warm and humid southerly winds originating from the Philippine Sea and east of Taiwan.
Furthermore, climate change is cited as a fundamental cause for the hot spring conditions, with high temperatures continuing in recent years.
This trend is not limited to Korea but is observed globally.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) predicts an 80 percent likelihood that the annual average global temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius — above pre-industrial levels — for at least one of the next five years.
This projection underscores the increasing difficulty of achieving the international community's climate goals.
The WMO emphasized that this serves as a stark warning, highlighting that the global community is rapidly approaching one of its critical thresholds, namely not exceeding the 1.5 degree Celsius rise outlined in the Paris Agreement on climate change.