Heat Wave Warning System Introduced

On August 9, temperatures across the country was hovering around 30 Celsius, and reached up to 37.2 Celsius in Hapcheon, Gyeongnam. That scorching condition was hot enough to remind people of “Malbok,” which signifies the last bout of intense heat in lunar calendar.

The Korea Meteorological Administration announced that today’s highs near Jinju at 37.1, Daegu at 36.1, Seoul at 34.2, Gwangju at 34, and Gangneung at 32.2. The figures are four to five Celsius degrees higher than the average. This stifling weather is expected to continue into the middle of this month.

The Korea Meteorological Administration has decided to introduce an early warning system to minimize damage caused by hot weather. As industrial damage and the loss of life triggered by heat wave are expected to rise further, it plans to issue heat wave warnings, a kind of emergency weather warning, from 2008.

Director General of the Korean Meteorological Administration Lee Man-gi said that advanced countries such as America, Japan, and the U.K have already introduced a heat wave warning system.

Korea, which has had mild summer weather, is likely to experience such scorching weather conditions in the years to come and suffer damage caused by heat waves. This hot weather will not end up as a one-off phenomenon.

A heat wave is categorized into three steps according to the intensity of hot weather: flash, warning, and alarm.

gaea@donga.com beetlez@donga.com