The Climate of South Korea
Compared to the narrow land, the climate zone belongs to a very diverse axis.
It is the coldest part of the Isotopes. According to the climate classification of Köfen, Korea can be divided into cold and temperate climates, and although it is a monsoon climate affected by continental winds, topographical precipitation appears, and high-altitude climates appear in some areas. The climate zone varies greatly depending on which of -3℃/0℃ is set as the standard for Choi Han-wol (average temperature of the coldest month of the year). However, since the 2010s, most of them have been based on 0 degrees.
It is one of the largest annual differences among countries classified as developed countries in the world. In particular, some areas have annual temperatures of 30°C or higher.
the main climate
In the world, 0℃ is the most widely used monthly basis, and more than 90% of Korea’s land, excluding the southern coastal area, has a cold climate. Since only the Choi Han-wol standard is changed, the strong resin area will be applied as it is.
However, the current high school curriculum applies the -3℃ standard, and most parts of Korea, including the metropolitan area, are taught to have a temperate climate.
For reference, the above map is almost similar to the climate map based on -3℃ per month about 100 years ago during Japanese colonial era. Jeonju was a little colder than Seoul at the time of Japanese colonial era.
Cold winter dry climate (Dw)
It is the climate where the largest population lives under the influence of Korea. Winter is dry and the annual gap is very large.
– Typical cities: Seoul Metropolitan City, Incheon Metropolitan City, Daegu Metropolitan City, Daejeon Metropolitan City, Suwon City, Goyang City
Cold to Wet Climate (Df)
It mainly appears in coastal areas, and unlike the cold winter dry climate, the precipitation in all seasons is relatively uniform, and in the case of Korea, the annual intersection is relatively small.
– Typical cities: Jeonju and Taebaek. Taebaek City
Temperate winter dry climate (Cw)
It is very similar to the cold winter dry climate in many aspects, such as annual crossings and winter precipitation, but only the average winter temperature has risen.
– Typical city: Busan Metropolitan City
Temperate Wet Climate (Cf)
It is the most typical type of temperate climate that can be encountered in Korea, and is characterized by a warm and dry winter.
– Typical cities: Gwangju Metropolitan City, Ulsan Metropolitan City, Pohang City, Jeju City
a climate pattern
Overall, it is characterized by the regularity of the four seasons, that is, the change of the four seasons. To put it worse, the annual gap is large, so summer is very hot and winter is very cold.
Summer is very humid and precipitation is very high during this time, while spring and winter are very dry, so precipitation is very low during this time. It is a very rare precipitation pattern in the world. And autumn is also quite dry except for the early autumn season when there is some precipitation. The entire Korean Peninsula spans 33-43 degrees north latitude, and the Republic of Korea spans 33-39 degrees north latitude, which is much colder than Greece, Portugal, and Spain with similar latitude. These countries are warmer than the southern part of Korea.
The annual temperature difference as a whole shows a large continental climate, ranging from 21 to 35 °C. In the case of North Korea, the annual gap widens to 30 to 40°C, which is larger than this. The annual intersection is very large, so the pleasant times of spring and fall are bound to be relatively short, and refer to the items below.
Although the climate pattern of the Korean Peninsula changes seasonally and the annual gap is large, there is no extreme daily temperature difference within a season. Inland China, Central Asia (such as Kazakhstan), and the Great Plains of the United States are more severely affected by changes in the air mass, and the temperature change is much more extreme than that of Korea within a week. The Korean Peninsula is located on the peninsula, so it is slightly free from these extreme temperature changes.
Precipitation is very high, ranging from 1,000 to 1,800mm per year, but 50% to 70% of the total precipitation is concentrated in summer. Therefore, summer in Korea has a high-temperature and humid climate, and the sensory temperature is also high, and accordingly, the discomfort index is very high. I don’t feel cool even in the shade. In addition, as precipitation is concentrated in summer, it is difficult to secure stable water resources due to frequent flood damage and large riverbed coefficient. Therefore, since the Three Kingdoms period, reservoirs such as Uirimji and Byeokgolje have been created to secure water resources. Still, it has the advantage of being able to grow rice, a tropical crop, due to the high temperature and rainy summer.
Rice farming with high population support was possible, so Korea could have a larger population than the current land. To be precise, rice has a high population support per unit area. Population support per unit labor force is surprisingly behind wheat. Because it takes a lot of labor to grow. In the first place, rice paddies and rice planting themselves do not produce properly if they are directly distributed to the fields, so it is a product made with additional labor.
On the other hand, winter has a cold and dry climate. Therefore, fire accidents such as forest fires occur frequently. In general, clear weather without a cloud is concentrated. Foreigners from Europe even say that they are cured of depression after seeing the winter sunlight in Korea. Since the Korean Peninsula itself is dominated by high pressure, precipitation is uneven, but the amount of sunlight is very even, so except for the summer season, you can hear the phrase, “Today, with the whole country mostly clear~” in a fictional weather forecast.
In recent years, the average annual temperature has also been rising due to global warming, and apples, a specialty of Daegu Metropolitan City, have grown well in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, about 2 degrees north of latitude, making Paju one of the main apple producers. Grapes are now the main production area of Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi-do. For this reason, it is pointed out that Korea’s climate is gradually changing to a subtropical climate.
Originally, spring and fall are in-between seasons, so the temperature fluctuates more than summer or winter, but on average, the time to feel comfortable is short, and the large annual gap also contributes to it. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration’s website, the daily low on the 2nd, the coldest day, is -0.9 degrees, and the daily high on the 23rd, the hottest day, is 25.3 degrees, with a difference of 26.2 degrees. More than that, even during the Japanese colonial period, there were quite a few cases of temperatures soaring to 25 to 28 degrees Celsius during the day, even though the temperature was single digits in the early morning or morning of April, and there were even days when it went below zero in the morning.
Due to global warming, the rainy season originally supposed to end at the end of July continues until after August?
Originally, it is a normal summer climate in Korea that frequently rains in August, and weather observations in Seoul in the 1960s show that it rained more in August than in July in 1961, 1962, and 1969, and the average monthly precipitation in August in the 1960s was 271.1mm. Rather, August is getting dry in the 2010s. Of course, as in the central part of 2020, the rainy season continued throughout August due to climate change, so it was definitely rainy compared to July, but there is no effect of global warming except in 2020. In contrast to the fact that it was normal in Korea, which had been raining a lot until the end of the summer, the fine dust was washed away by the rain that poured throughout the summer and the air quality cleared up. Until the weather cools down in autumn, it should rain enough so that it can survive safely until the spring of the following year. Nevertheless, the reason for this misunderstanding is that with the introduction of Western vacation culture, which continues to be clear and dry throughout the summer, the weather is hoped to be good in early August, when summer vacation is usually rainy and cloudy. They bring in cultures that do not fit the Korean climate and blame the innocent climate. As a result, more and more people are taking vacations in early summer, spring, and autumn to avoid the rainy season, or taking a rest at home or at hotels in the city during summer vacation. However, since 2014, as the influence of the North Pacific fleet has weakened due to climate change, precipitation in July has decreased and the rainy season front has stagnated in the southern region, and central regions such as Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon-do have been suffering from drought and heat waves. In severe cases, the southern part of the country is also suffering from drought. In 2020, it got worse, so there was no intention of going to low temperatures and raining at all, but in the first half of August, there was also a lot of rain in the central region.