South Korea gripped by worst cold spell in decades

[unreal.livejournal.com]

A prolonged cold spell sent the mercury plummeting nationwide on Sunday, with temperatures in even the usually warmer southern regions dropping to their lowest in decades, the country's weather agency said.

Seoul recorded minus 17.8 C, the lowest since a minus 18.6 C reading in the nation's capital on Jan. 15, 2001, said the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).


Merchants make bonfires to keep warm at a traditional market in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, as the country is affected by severely cold weather


The morning low dropped to minus 24.3 C in Cheorwon, a town in Gangwon Province close to the border with North Korea, the lowest temperature in the country, minus 22.4 in Paju, a border town in Gyeonggi Province, and minus 22.1 C in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, according to the KMA.

The southern port city of Busan recorded minus 12 C, the lowest in 96 years since a minus 14 C was recorded in 1915.

Citizens in Ulsan, an southeastern port city, saw the coldest weather in 44 years with the morning low dropping to minus 13.5 C, the lowest since minus 14.3 C recorded on Jan. 6, 1967.

The cold spell was no exception on the southern resort island of Jeju and in Jeolla provinces. On Jeju, the mercury dipped to minus 3.3 C, the KMA said.

Heavy snowfall and high waves disrupted ground and sea traffic in those areas.

Several major roads were forced to close on Jeju, and about 10 ferry services were suspended at major ports on the southern coasts, including Mokpo.

The cold spell also caused water pipes to freeze and burst across the country, including Busan, where tens of such reports arrived overnight.

The cold spell is expected to ease around Tuesday but temperatures will remain lower than average all week long, with morning lows in Seoul expected to hover around minus 10, said the KMA.

It also forecast that Ulleung Island and the Dokdo islets in the East Sea and mountainous areas of Jeju will receive up to 20 centimeters of snowfall and southern provinces on the west coast will see up to 10 centimeters of snowfall on Monday.

Source: yonhapnews

Comments

[littlefuji.livejournal.com]

Poor SKoreans freezing their face off in this kind of weather.

FTIsland's Jonghun tweeted today: "@FtGtJH It’s Sunday. Did the weather bring in temperatures from North Pole?" I laughed at the North Pole mention. But I see he wasn't joking. o~o

[littlefuji.livejournal.com]

Ei I just noticed, the flame looks like the shape of a human o_o

[renai21.livejournal.com]

:(
the weather is becoming extreme all around the world. I wonder how thing are going to be in ten years

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

We will be like dinosaurs.

[kishikiari.livejournal.com]

damn it :x poor people, here it feels like spring and we are in the middle of the winter!
the weather is totally fucked up

[di-as-86.livejournal.com]

same here, the sun is shining and we have around 15-18C every day... and it snowed in Vegas. the weather has totally gone crazy.

[jenna-lovesyou.livejournal.com]

damn, omg. weather is never in between anymore. it is always so fucking hot or so fucking cold.

[twinkystar16.livejournal.com]

it's freaking hot in malaysia right now in the afternoon and it rain like crazy in the evening..the weather is crazy right now..

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

It's awful, the streets are covered in black ice.
It's so hard to get around because the cold is so biting :(

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Black ice? wow. Be careful Jasmine <3.

[crisketch.livejournal.com]

ya srsly seoul wtf no fun walking to school in your -16 weather hmph.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

jfc I know. It's so miserable.

[kellygreen.livejournal.com]

As a Canadian, it's kind of funny that those are the record lows for this country, but seriously it's cold as balls out there. I ran across the road to the store this evening and thought my face was going to fall off. WTF.

[finchburg.livejournal.com]

I hate when it's that cold and the minute you step outside the snot in your nose freezes up and your face is just all kinds of pain.

[finchburg.livejournal.com]

Whatever, Korea. I live in MN and as soon as November comes things just start to freeze. Deal with it :P

[pistolkrystle.livejournal.com]

I'm in MN too the other we had to go out and find an object in nature to sculpt, I was like o_O is this professor serious he wants us to dig in mountains of snow for some pine cones...

[jabeum.livejournal.com]

I'm not delighted to hear this as I'm flying there in a week but, I do come from a country where the winter is pretty cold and where we've this winter had it at -20 for pretty long so I guess I can deal with it.

[brailleun.livejournal.com]

Guess I have to take my pink coat ;;.

Or are we going to spend lots of time out side? Though. I like walking around so.. Sigh.

[yamapi96.livejournal.com]

...Oh dear. COME TO SINGAPORE DUDES, THE WEATHER IS LIKE, 30 DEGREES EVERYDAY, ALL AROUND THE YEAR. ...Although now it's getting kinda cold too T_T temperature keeps dropping to 23 degrees or so, never seen before in my whole 15 years of my life here.

[enchantark.livejournal.com]

oh my god, that's seriously hot.

[sayuai.livejournal.com]

FUUU that's cold. I'm glad it never really gets that bad here...

[-ochre.livejournal.com]

Ugh yes my Busan friend told me that they hit an all time low this week since 1915 or something and I'm like gotdamn girl.

[violentiak.livejournal.com]

I find it pretty amusing that that is considered so damn cold. Those are pretty normal temperatures during winter were I live. Around Christmas it was -25 to -35.
Yeah, it's not pleasant, but you just have to know how to dress to stay warm.
(and that's actually what I hate in winters the most, you have to wear so much)

But yeah, it's bad if they haven't been prepared for it, their houses and pipes and everything aren't exactly made for that cold.

[makiono.livejournal.com]

I only sympathize because I remember what it was like with no central heating -- I can't imagine what their houses must be like right now. I thought it was horrible when it was -2 in Japan... kept my heater blasting on high T_T

But yeah, chances that the snow will stick in Korea, idk. I think as long as the cold snap doesn't stay too long they won't have too much trouble with snow removal since it'll melt pretty quick imo. The pipes bursting would be much much worse I think.

[madelyn93.livejournal.com]

fuck you weather. it was 34celcius here all day and i had to forgo my daily jog because it was too freaking hot T_______________T

if only the weather gods distributed heat equally.

[la-geni.livejournal.com]

The weather is fucked up. We were stuck in SNOW in LA county trying to go north for like 5 fucking hours. Snow. Yes Cali gets snow but not there. I've been travelling that road for years and that's never happened before.

[kms012.livejournal.com]

Woah, snow in LA county! Someone said there was a snowstorm in Vegas too 0.o" The weather seriously is fucked up... I live in Australia and 3/4 of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone due to massive flooding throughout the state. I'm lucky I live in New South Wales, but it's incredibly sad to see the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their homes and those who have lost their lives. Crazy shit is going on all over the world at the moment...

[nausicaa17.livejournal.com]

That is cold. I can only distinctly remember one winter where it was that cold where I lived, and they canceled school the day it was around -25 C.

[nile-red.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I'm on vacation in America....last winter in Seoul was TOO COLD for me..

[sadistic-dance.livejournal.com]

They need coats from Chicago. They'd be fine after that.

[6rystalis.livejournal.com]

Is that styrofoam I see in that picture? If you don't put it in the microwave, you definitely don't want to burn expanded polystyrene ^^;;

[brailleun.livejournal.com]

Well we choose good time to go there -______-. OH WELL it's been what, over -20C here so I guess we won't freeze there. Sigh. I wished it would be a bit warmer there than here.

Yes I'll always be unimpressed by this kind of posts. Come to Finland to see some real snow&cold :').

[loveontheline.livejournal.com]

haha that's nothing where i come from

[childishgrin.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

Where are you from anyway lol.

[childishgrin.livejournal.com]

The morning low dropped to minus 24.3 C
Lol that's what we're used to in Montreal.

I remember a few years ago when they was like... an inch of snow in some American cities and they all went in panic mode, closing schools, businesses, dispatching emergency workers and all that shit where in Montreal we were all "... all that for an inch? Even at 3 feet of snow we still need to drag our sorry asses to school/work."

[coffeebang.livejournal.com]

The county I grew up in would cancel school for the threat of snow. It was amazing, especially when the next day would be sunny and in the 60's.

[summertangerine.livejournal.com]

i find it hard to sympathize... since that's normal in Calgary. the weather here is even worse, actually

but... i hope they're coping well, i guess. since they aren't used to that kind of weather.

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

i think i should go to japan or something...we had -15° here and normally i prefer winter over summer..but wtf. this is not normal for korea or other regions in that area of the planet..T_T