Rain Clouds Over Yellow Sea Intensify; 'Extreme Downpours' Expected in Central Regions at Dawn

[Anchor]

Let's take a closer look at the detailed weather forecast with Jeong Gu-hui from our weather team.

Jeong, with up to 300mm of rain expected over the weekend, this seems to be the heaviest rainfall of the summer. What is the cause?

[Reporter]

There are regions that have already seen significant rainfall today, July 17.

Here at Sangdong Station at 6:30 AM, you can see passengers struggling due to the heavy rain while trying to transfer from a broken-down train.

However, the situation is not the same across all southern regions.

Looking at the cumulative rainfall, there has been significant rain centered around Chungcheong-do. While heavy rain also fell in parts of Daegu, triggering a heavy rain advisory, some areas such as the southern coast, including Busan, and parts of Jeonbuk-do did not see a single drop of rain.

So, I believe people in the southern regions must have felt a significant difference.

However, the situation will change starting tonight. The monsoon front is expected to develop strongly.

This time, not only the monsoon front but also a low-pressure system on top of it is expected to intensify significantly.

There is a reason for this.

The first is the water temperature. The water temperature in the Yellow Sea has currently risen to 25°C (77°F).

Due to this high water temperature, a large amount of water vapor is being supplied to the low-pressure system and the monsoon front, which is expected to cause the monsoon rain clouds to develop strongly.

As I just mentioned, strong rain is currently falling in the northern parts of Gyeongsang-do, and strong rain clouds are approaching the Chungcheong-do area. It is expected that the rain clouds forming over the Yellow Sea will intensify further overnight and move toward the inland areas.

[Anchor]

Are you saying that extreme downpours could hit the central regions as early as tomorrow dawn?

[Reporter]

That is correct. Looking at the timing of the heavy rain, extreme downpours of 50 to 80mm per hour could pour down in the Seoul metropolitan area, Gangwon-do, and northern Chungcheong-do between dawn and the morning hours tomorrow.

These rain clouds will gradually move southward. Heavy rain of 30 to 50mm per hour is expected in Chungcheong-do and Gyeongbuk-do, and 20 to 30mm per hour in Gyeongnam-do and Jeonnam-do from tomorrow night until dawn.

Therefore, over the weekend, up to 100 to 300mm of rain is expected in the Seoul metropolitan area, up to 250mm in Chungcheong-do, and up to 150mm in the northern parts of Gyeongsang-do.

What is concerning is that the southward-moving monsoon front could be even more dangerous.

The monsoon front is fundamentally created by the collision of cold air from the north and warm air from the south, and this cold air is quite heavy.

As the cold air wedges under the warm air, it forces the warm air to rise. This causes the warm air to rise rapidly, potentially creating vertically developed rain clouds that could pour down heavy rain.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to be well-prepared for the weather situation tomorrow.

(Design: Seo Seung-hyun, Choi Jae-young, Im Chan-hyeok, Jeon Yu-geun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.