Coming Soon: Digital Weather Forecasts

Weather forecasts will be available to each city, county and district, providing people with detailed weather information for their residence and traveling areas, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) yesterday.

The KMA said that it will further specify its forecast range from two to four cities, counties or districts together, into five kilometer increments, and that it will provide digital weather forecasts online starting at 03:00 p.m. on October 31.

Digital weather forecast could help prevent disasters, improve industrial activities and leisure because precipitation differs from one place to another, depending on regional torrential rain, even though cities and counties might neighbor each other.

The KMA has decided to offer 12 different kinds of weather factors, including temperature, weather conditions, wind direction, wind velocity, precipitation, snowfall, humidity and wave height while dividing the Korean peninsula and sea area into 37,697 units (each five kilometers in length and width). The weather forecasts marked in numbers update every three hours and provide information up to two days in advance.

One can get weather information after logging onto the digital weather forecast domain at www.digital.go.kr by clicking a particular area on the map or typing in the names of certain areas.

Weather forecasts will be provided in various forms such as graphic images that make it possible for a viewer to see the nationwide weather situation at a glance, text messages, and voice messages.

The KMA will officially start its service in the first half of next year after a problem-solving pilot operation period.

Jong-Dae Ha orionha@donga.com