Once-in-200-year rainfall becoming more frequent: Is Korea prepared?
Following the historical rainfall of nearly 1,000 millimeters dumped on Geoje over three days, urgent calls are made to change the country's weather disaster response system as such extreme rainfall is starting to become an annual event. During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to devise measures to revamp the country’s response system, citing the urgent…
A once-in-200-year rainfall event has recently struck the South Korean coast, prompting urgent calls for a review of the nation's weather disaster response system. In the span of just three days, Geoje, a city near the nation's southern tip, experienced an unprecedented downpour of nearly 1,000 millimeters, with intense bursts of rain at times.
President Lee Jae Myung convened a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss the need for a more robust and modernized system to handle such extreme weather events. According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Geoje bore the brunt of the storm, receiving a staggering 968.1 millimeters over three days. At its peak, a deluge of 124.5 millimeters fell within an hour, an intensity level statistically expected to occur only once every 200 years.
Even nearby Tongyeong was not spared, receiving 777.8 millimeters of rain during the same period. A climate analysis report released by the ministry reveals a concerning trend. While the 1970s saw an average of ten incidents of heavy rainfall exceeding 50 millimeters per hour per decade, this number has steadily increased over time, indicating a disturbing acceleration in the frequency of such extreme weather events.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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- Once-in-200-year rainfall becoming more frequent: Is Korea prepared? koreatimes.co.kr
