The number of bitterly cold days was 12 during last winter between October 2017 and April 2018, the KMA said. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of bitterly cold days has dropped in Seoul this winter, the national weather agency said Wednesday.
The Korea Meteorological Administration said the number of days when the morning low dipped below minus 12C totaled just one, Dec. 28, between last October and Wednesday.
By contrast, the number of bitterly cold days was 12 during last winter between October 2017 and April 2018, the KMA said.
The agency explained that extreme cold weather has been on a decline in South Korea over the past decades due to climate change and other factors, though the number of very cold days has fluctuated.
According to KMA data, the number of bitterly cold days averaged eight in Seoul in the 1970s and 1980s. The figure peaked at 21 days in the winter of 1976.
Since the 1990s, however, the average number of bitterly cold days per year dropped to two and the trend has remained almost unchanged after 2000.
Despite the reduction in extreme cold weather, the nation can be hit by a cold wave anytime this winter, if the jet stream that prevents the cold air of the North Pole from sinking is weakened by global warming and the cold air descends onto the Korean Peninsula, KMA officials said.
(Yonhap)
