Temperatures to dip Thursday after week's hot start

Temperatures across the country will cool on Thursday and Friday, with rain expected in southern coastal areas and Jeju Island.

Passersby walk through a water fountain at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Wednesday as heatwaves descend on the country. [YONHAP]

Temperatures across the country will cool on Thursday and Friday, with rain expected in southern coastal areas and Jeju Island.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said in a statement Wednesday that temperatures will drop by about 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) nationwide on Thursday and Friday compared to Wednesday.

Temperatures in eastern Gangwon were forecast to dip further, by about 10 degrees.

Temperatures in most parts of the country exceeded 30 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, with the eastern coastal areas of Gangwon reaching nearly 34 degrees.

The southern coastal areas and Jeju Island will likely get rain from Thursday to Friday morning, said the KMA.

Some 5 to 30 millimeters (0.2 to 1.2 inches) are predicted to fall on the southern coastal areas, while Jeju Island will get 20 to 60 millimeters and Mount Halla upwards of 80 millimeters.

The KMA warned that the rain could be coupled with lightning, thunder and strong gusts of wind.

Areas that don’t get rain on Thursday will be mostly cloudy. The high for Seoul and Gangneung, Gangwon was predicted to be 25 degrees. The high for Incheon was forecast as 23 degrees.

The high for the rest of the country will be around 20 to 25 degrees, said the KMA.

Temperatures in Gangwon were more than 13 degrees higher than in previous years earlier this week, with Gangneung hitting as high as 36 degrees Tuesday. That was even higher than the 34 degrees recorded in Daegu, which is generally considered the hottest city in the country.

By 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Gangneung was already 31.8 degrees and later reached 34 degrees.

In explaining why the eastern coast of Gangwon was experiencing intense heatwaves, Woo Jin-gyu, an official at the KMA, said that the heat was influenced by migratory anticyclones in Korea’s southern areas, coupled with hot air carried from China’s inland areas by southwest winds.

As the hot air encountered Gangwon’s Taebaek mountain range, said Woo, it underwent a phenomenon called the Foehn effect, which resulted in hot and dry winds blowing into the eastern part of the province, causing temperatures to jump.

BY CHON KWON-PIL, LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]