KORYesterday (August 7), which marked Ipchu, the traditional start of autumn, a suffocating heatwave gripped Seoul, with temperatures exceeding 40°C for the first time in 8 years. It was recorded as the 4th hottest day in the roughly 100 years since weather observations began.
Our first report is from Im Jihyeon.
The Gangnam-gu Office Station intersection in Seoul was captured using a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera.
Everything from the asphalt to the exterior walls of buildings is glowing entirely red.
The entire city looks as if it has transformed into a giant furnace.
With surface and building temperatures soaring to a staggering 48°C, it is difficult to walk around without blocking the sun with a parasol.
[Won Jin-hee / Gangnam-gu, Seoul: I do not think there has been a week this hot. Is it not Ipchu? The word Ipchu feels meaningless, and it seems like it will get even hotter for a while.]
The Han River, visited in hopes of a cool river breeze, was instead filled only with the heat of the scorching wave.
The Han River rest areas, which would normally be crowded, are empty of people coming out to play due to the extreme heat.
People gather in the shade beneath the bridge to avoid the sunlight, even if only for a moment.
[Kang Gwan-uk / Mapo-gu, Seoul: Even when the river breeze blows, it feels so hot. My head hurts being here.]
The breathtaking, choking heat has now reached a point of fear.
[Park Yoon-oh / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: I walked for about 10 minutes just now, and it feels like a sauna or a dry steam room, but it feels even worse than that.]
The daytime high temperature in Seoul reached 38°C based on official observation stations.
This was recorded as the hottest day of the year and the 4th hottest day since weather observations began in 1908.
At 3:28 PM, an observation device installed in Nowon-gu pointed to 40.2°C, marking the first time a temperature exceeding 40°C has been recorded in Seoul since August 2018.
Deokpung-dong in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province reached 40.8°C, Gwangyang in South Jeolla Province reached 40.2°C, and Daegu reached 39.9°C, with peak temperatures hovering around or above 40°C in various parts of the country.
The Korea Meteorological Administration lowered the severe heatwave warnings issued for most parts of the Seoul metropolitan area, inland Gangwon, and the Honam region down to standard heatwave warnings as of 6:00 PM.
(Photo: Yonhap News) (Reported by Choi Dae-woong, Video Editing by Park Ji-in)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
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