Temperature Rise over Korean Peninsula 2.5 Times Faster Than Global Average

It has been found that during the last 100 years the annual average temperature of the Korean peninsula has risen 1.5 degrees, or 2.5 times faster than the annual average temperature of the world, which has risen only 0.6 degrees.

Also, it has been found that the phenomena of concentrated heavy rain will get worse, as the amount of rainfall from 1920-90 has increased 7 percent, while the number of days of rainfall has decreased by 14 percent.

On Wednesday, Park Jung-gyu, director of the Weather Prediction Center at the Korea Meteorological Administration, presented this information as part of his presentation on ‘Weather Changes and Predicting Unusual Weather Occurrences in the World’ during the 2005 Prevention of Disasters seminar, held at the Korea Press Center in Taepyeongno, Jung-gu, Seoul.

According to Park, starting in the 21st century, the global annual average temperature has risen 0.6 degrees to 14.6 degrees, which was 14 degrees in the 1900’s. Meanwhile, the Korean peninsula temperature has risen 1.5 degrees, from 12.4 degrees to 13.9 degrees.

The temperature of Seoul during the winter has risen especially fast, increasing by a margin of 2.7 degrees during the last 30 years, representing the most rapid rise of temperature in Korea. During the last 30 years, the winter temperature of Chupungryeong has risen merely 0.4 degrees.

It has been found that the primary cause behind the fact that Seoul’s temperature has risen seven times higher than Chupungryeong’s is due to environmental changes caused by the increase of population, cars, and buildings.

Also, the annual average amount of rainfall during the 1920’s of 1150-1170mm has increased to 1250mm in the 1990’s. However, the annual number of days of rainfall has decreased from 116-118 days to just 105 days.

As concentrated heavy rainfall occurred more frequently, the cost of damage due to natural disaster increased from approximately 100 billion won until the 1970’s to over 500 billion won in the 1980’s, recently reaching 4~6 trillion won.

Jong-Dae Ha orionha@donga.com