Temperatures rise above 40 C for 4th straight day in southeast to set new record

Sizzling heat wave ensnares southeastern region of South Korea, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius for a record fourth consecutive day. The scorching conditions peaked at 41.6 C in Yangsan, a city situated 310 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) reported on Saturday. This marks the highest temperature recorded since modern weather observations commenced on the Korean Peninsula in 1904, based on data from the KMA's 97 long-term observation stations.

Should the mercury in Yangsan crest 42 C, it would shatter the country's modern weather observation system record, surpassing even automatic weather stations. Only three instances of temperatures surpassing the 41.4 C mark observed in Yangsan on Friday have been documented in historical records, with the most recent being 41.9 C in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, on August 1, 2018, which does not constitute part of the 97 KMA observation sites.