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| Children play in a fountain at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, Friday, as the country experiences high temperatures. Korea Times file |
By Ko Dong-hwan
The scorching heat will continue throughout next week with the country's weather watchdog urging people, particularly farmers and other laborers working outdoors, to take precautions against health risks in such heat.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) issued heat wave advisories and warnings for most parts of the country on Friday. The advisory is issued when daytime highs of 33 degree Celsius or over are expected to continue for at least two consecutive days. The warning is issued when the figure surpasses 35 degrees Celsius.
The authority said some of the regions currently under the advisory will likely see the warning as the heat is expected to continue for a while.
For Seoul, daytime highs next week are expected to hover between 31 to 34 degrees Celsius, higher than the average 30-31 degrees Celsius.
Morning lows are also expected to be around 25-26 degrees Celsius, bringing "tropical nights" which refers to lows remaining at 25 degrees Celsius or over between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m.
The weather agency warned those who work in agriculture, livestock, fishery, maritime farming and other predominantly outdoor industries of heat exhaustion and advised them to stay hydrated, stay in the shade and avoid highly strenuous work.
The KMA said that parts of the country will see sudden thunderstorms with showers through Sunday, with 5 to 40 millimeters of precipitation expected.
Extreme heat continues in the country because of the North Pacific High, a semi-permanent, subtropical anticyclone. With Pacific Ocean waters warming, the anticyclone has expanded its influential zones reaching Korea and China, according to the agency.
The KMA said Typhoon Khanun is expected to cast cloudy skies early next month. Developing into a typhoon on Friday some 730 kilometers west of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean, Khanun is expected to move northwest and directly hit Japan's Okinawa next Monday and Shanghai, China, Wednesday.
