This file photo, taken with a thermal imaging camera from Mount Namsan on July 27, 2022, shows downtown Seoul amid a heat wave. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Last year was the ninth warmest year on record in South Korea, data showed Saturday.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said the average temperature throughout 2022 was 12.9 C, 0.4 C higher than the average of 12.5 C during the baseline period from 1991 to 2020.
It also marked the ninth highest temperature since the country began nationwide weather monitoring in 1973.
Adding to evidence that the planet is heating up, all but two of the country’s 10 warmest years have occurred in this century, according to the data.
The hottest-ever was 2006, which saw an average temperature of 13.4 C. It was followed by 2021 and 2019 with 13.3 C; 1998 with 13.2 C; 2015 with 13.1 C; 2020, 2007 and 1994 with 13.0 C; and 2004 and 2022 with 12.9 C.
In 2022, the mercury was unusually high every season.
Last spring was the warmest since 1973, with temperatures from March to May averaging 13.2 C, the KMA found.
Last year also saw the seventh-hottest summer with an average temperature of 24.5 C from June to August, and the ninth warmest fall with an average of 14.8 C from September to November.
But last December was the fourth coldest on record with the average temperature hitting minus 1.4 C.
The country experienced a total of 12.9 tropical nights last summer, the fourth most during the past 50 years. A tropical night occurs when the temperature does not fall below 25 C during the nighttime.
The year also marked the 14th driest year on record, with the average precipitation reaching 1,140 millimeters, less than the 30-year average of 1,331.7 mm, KMA said.
(Yonhap)
