SEOUL, July 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Tropical nights, during which the temperature stays above 25 degrees Celsius at night, are becoming more severe in Seoul and nearby areas, a study showed Sunday.
A research team from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology analyzed daily low temperature data from 1979 to 2018, which showed a disproportionate increase in the frequency, duration and intensity of tropical nights in the greater Seoul area compared to other areas.
What’s more, tropical nights occurred even when there was no heatwave on the same day.
Tropical nights occurring without any preceding heatwave increased from 80 days between 1979 and 1999 to 134 days between 2000 and 2018, up by 67.5 percent.
The increase is largely attributed to high-pressure systems in the North Pacific stretching further northeast, as well as an increase in cloud cover, which prevents temperatures from dropping at night.
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