Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Scorching heat wave expected to grip Korea
People cross a street on Yeouido, Seoul, Wednesday, as heat rises from the road surface. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
The “rainy season” here is expected to end around next Monday with temperatures forecast to rise right afterward, according to the weather agency, Wednesday.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) forecast the limited monsoon period is likely to end after rainfall around July 18 and 19.
A heat wave has already gripped the country since last week along with sporadic rainfall, with many parts of the nation having tropical nights where the temperature remains above 25 degrees Celsius. Seoul had its first tropical night Monday, 23 days earlier than last year's which occurred Aug. 4.
But after rain expected nationwide over the latter part of the weekend leading into next week, seasonal rain fronts will disappear and a stronger heat wave is likely to hit the peninsula.
The KMA anticipates a heat dome will form over the Korean Peninsula, with a hot and dry high-pressure system from the Tibetan Plateau located in the upper layer of the stratosphere and another hot and humid high-pressure system from the North Pacific in a lower layer of the atmosphere.
The sweltering heat that has been gripping the U.S. and Canada since June is also due to a heat dome, according to the weather agency.
“After July 19, the country is forecast to experience a heat dome phenomenon where both upper and lower layers of the atmosphere are hot and heat is trapped,” the KMA said, Tuesday.
There are already concerns that the heat wave could be worse than in 2018, when two high-pressure systems expanded and covered the peninsula delivering scorching heat for more than a month ― from mid-July to the end of August ― with Seoul's daytime highs recording 39.6 degrees Celsius.
“The position of the high-pressure systems is similar to that of 2018, but it is not known whether the heat will continue to affect the peninsula for as long as it did in 2018 because the relevant data has yet to be collected,” a KMA official said.