South Korea records hottest April in 50 years

The KMA report pointed out that global warming was the cause of the unusually hot April. The average temperature of 14.9 degrees Celsius was the highest recorded temperature in April since 1973, surpassing the previous record of 14.7 degrees Celsius in 1998. Thus, the average temperature across South Korea has increased by 0.8 degrees Celsius in the past 51 years.

The average temperature for April also exceeded the 1991-2020 average of 12.1 degrees Celsius, while the average daily high also hit a record high of 21.1 degrees Celsius, up 2.5 degrees from previous years. The weather was particularly hot on April 14, with daytime temperatures in the Seoul area and some areas of Gangwon Province hovering around 30 degrees Celsius.

According to KMA, the unusually hot temperatures were due to the El Nino phenomenon, which caused higher-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the eastern and central tropical Pacific, weakened convective activity in the western Pacific, leading to the development of high pressure in the eastern Philippines, and hot and humid winds in the eastern Philippines moving north.

Without the support of cold Arctic air, the Siberian continental high pressure was weaker than usual, causing the high pressure mass to move southward and quickly transform into a mobile high pressure. The KMA explained that the mobile cyclone not only brought clear weather to Korea and increased solar radiation, but also played a role in bringing warm southeasterly winds to the east of Korea.