[Anchor]

While heat advisories and warnings have been issued across most parts of the country, severe heat warnings have gone into effect for the southern regions, including Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, and the Gyeongsang provinces. Shortly ago, the first severe heat warnings were also issued for Seoul and the greater metropolitan area. Amid this, heat-related deaths are surging in various places, leading to a continuous toll on human life.

Reporter Kwon Min-kyu has the details.

[Reporter]

The Korea Meteorological Administration stated today (August 3) that severe heat warnings are in effect for most southern regions, including Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, Daegu, South Gyeongsang Province, and North Gyeongsang Province.

A severe heat warning is issued when the daily highest temperature is expected to exceed 39°C (102°F), or when the daily highest perceived temperature is 38°C (100°F) or higher.

As of 3:00 p.m. today, sweltering heat hovering around 40°C (104°F) continued primarily in the Jeolla and Gyeongsang regions, with Gwangyang in South Jeolla Province recording 41.1°C (106°F), Buk-gu in Daegu recording 40.9°C (106°F), and Uiryeong in South Gyeongsang Province recording 40.7°C (105°F).

Gumi in North Gyeongsang Province broke its all-time high temperature record since local observations began as temperatures surpassed 38.1°C (101°F), while Boryeong in South Chungcheong Province, which is under a heat wave warning, also exceeded 37.1°C (99°F) to break its record for the highest temperature in August.

While the government has raised the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters for heat waves to Level 2, the number of heat-related illness patients reached 1,889 as of August 1.

Among them, fatalities were tallied at 14, but casualties are expected to increase further as presumed heat-related deaths have continued to surge yesterday across various parts of the country, including Gimpo in Gyeonggi Province, Incheon, Dangjin in South Chungcheong Province, and Busan.

The Korea Meteorological Administration emphasized that extra care should be taken for health management as the highest perceived temperature is expected to hover around 35°C (95°F) in most parts of the country for the time being.

It also urged residents in areas under severe heat warnings to halt all outdoor activities as much as possible and move indoors to cooling facilities such as designated heat wave shelters to take a rest.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-jin)