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full screen A group of children take the opportunity to cool off in a fountain in hot Seoul. The picture was taken on 25 July. Photo: Ahn Young-Joon/AP/TT
South Korea’s capital, Seoul, has recorded 26 tropical nights in a row – by the country’s standards, nights when the temperature stays above 25 degrees. That’s according to statistics published on Friday.
– There is no cold air coming down from the north and in combination with the fact that we are affected by the warmer side from the southwest, the temperature continues to be around 25 degrees or more, says Youn Ki-han, director of the Seoul Meteorological Institute.
Since South Korea began collecting weather data in 1907, it has only recorded as many consecutive hot nights on one previous occasion, in 2018, but the weather institute counts the latest record as a benchmark in its statistical compilation.
Large parts of the world have experienced a summer marked by extreme temperatures, prompting UN Secretary-General António Guterres to warn last month of an “epidemic of extreme heat”.