The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Current Asian Hot Spell Is ‘Worst Heatwave Ever’
Dear Diary. While we have been concentrating on domestic heat, Asia has been suffering through an extreme heatwave that weather historian Maximiliano Herrera has described as the “worst heatwave ever:”
Max’s superlatives are warranted, looking at the extent of the heat dome over Asia stretching from Saudi Arabia to Japan. Here is what we saw on Saturday when Max issued the above X statement:
The 598 heat dome over Japan and Korea is most disturbing. The rest of Asia westward to Saudi Arabia is under a strong hear dome.
On Sunday here was the extent of this elongated heat dome:
At least the heat dome over extreme east Asia has come down a notch. Here is what Max wrote:
Catching up to today, here is the current state of Asia’s heat dome:
Within a broad area of Asia under a heat dome there are two centers, one over western China and the other over southern Japan and South Korea. Records from Asia are being set in droves:
As far as the future of this heatwave goes, in a couple of days the heat dome over Central Asia comes down but does not disappear. It remains strong over eastern Asia, however:
Here is a summary of how this heat has affected South Korea:
South Korea reports over 100 heat-related illness cases in 3 days | The Straits Times
South Korea reports over 100 heat-related illness cases in 3 days
South Korea has seen a surge in the number of days with scorching heat, leading to a rapid increase in cases of heat-related illnesses. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Updated Jul 28, 2024, 12:04 PM
SEOUL – With the monsoon season coming to an end, South Korea has seen a surge in the number of days with scorching heat, leading to a rapid increase in the number of cases of heat-related illnesses.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on July 26, 507 medical institutions equipped with emergency rooms reported to the agency that they saw 124 patients with heat-related illnesses from July 22 to 24 – 55 of them were from July 24 alone.
The KDCA added that 16.3 per cent of the total number of heat-related illnesses reported since it first started monitoring such cases in 2024 came from the past three days. Since May 20, the agency has seen up to 759 cases of heat-related illnesses.
The number of cases this week was also 3.5 times higher than in the last week. The agency reported 35 heat-related illness cases from July 15 to 17.
So far, 78.7 per cent of the patients with heat-related illnesses were male, with 29.5 per cent of these patients aged 65 and above. Of the patients with heat-related illnesses, 11.1 per cent were in their 20s, and 13.2 per cent in their 30s.
By illness, heat exhaustion accounted for the largest share of cases, at 54.4 per cent, followed by heat stroke, heat cramps and heat syncope.
According to the KDCA, this week’s spike in the number of heat-related illnesses was likely due to the rise in temperatures and humidity levels caused by intermittent rain showers nationwide.
On July 24, South Korea’s average daytime temperatures reached 34 deg C, with some cities in Gyeonggi, North Chungcheong and South Jeolla provinces seeing temperatures reach 35 deg C.
Due to the high humidity levels, temperatures across most of South Korea felt as intense as 35 deg C, prompting heatwave warnings to be issued nationwide from July 24 until July 26.
In South Korea, heatwave warnings are activated when the highest apparent temperature is forecast to exceed 33 deg C for two consecutive days or more.
On July 26, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) raised the warning level from “caution” to “alert” in most parts of the country. South Korea raises its heatwave warning level when daytime temperatures are forecast to exceed 35 deg C for two consecutive days or more.
The country’s heatwave warnings have four levels of intensity: attention, caution, alert and serious.
Major cities such as Seoul, Daejeon and Daegu expected to see daytime temperatures reach up to 34 deg C on July 26, with the capital city seeing the “alert” level warning for the first time in 2024.
In cities where a heatwave warning at the “alert” was not issued, a warning at the “caution” level remained.
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The KMA noted that it might feel one to two degrees hotter than the actual temperatures due to the increased humidity.
It added that the recent high temperatures are due to layers of the atmosphere being covered with hot air.
“Currently, the upper layer of the atmosphere is covered by the hot and dry Tibetan anticyclone, while the mid and lower atmosphere is covered by the warm and humid North Pacific anticyclone,” said KMA official Woo Jin-kyu in a statement to the press.
Mr Woo added that Typhoon Gaemi, which made landfall in south-eastern China on the afternoon of July 25, will also “continue to bring hot, moist air into the region”, making the high temperatures and heatwave warnings persist at the weekend. THE KOREA HERALD/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Monday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)