Most freezing day of December in 41 years

The fiercest freeze since this winter smashed South Korea over the Christmas weekend. Its capital of Seoul was met with the coldest December in 41 years while heavy snow covered Gangwon, Jeolla and Jeju provinces to cause damage across the nation.

Seoul recorded -15.5 degrees Celsius on Sunday morning, the lowest temperature of December in 41 years following -16.2 degrees Celsius on Dec. 29, 1980, according to the Meteorological Administration. Cheorwon in Gangwon Province was the coldest area of the nation with the morning temperature of -25.5 degrees Celsius.

A cold spell froze the whole nation over with temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius in its most parts including Incheon (-14.3 degrees Celsius), Daejeon (-14.5 degrees Celsius) and Daegu (-10.8 degrees Celsius).

Many parts of the nation had heavy snowfall. Ulleung Island recorded 53.4 centimeters of snow buildup over the weekend. The amount of snowfall across Gangwon Province reached up to 41.1 centimeters while Jeju and Jeolla provinces with 33.8 and 29.5 centimeters, respectively.

This harsh cold spell will subside starting from Monday afternoon. Although Seoul is expecting daytime temperatures above zero to recover to average levels on Tuesday, another cold spell will come back to bring temperatures down to -10 degrees Celsius or so on Friday.


1am@donga.com