The temperature in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, soared to 42.5°C on Aug. 2, rewriting the highest temperature in South Korea's 122-year weather-observation history. The figure, 0.6°C above the previous record, is more than a local anomaly: it reads as the opening of a 'disaster-grade heat wave' set to run through the first week of August. With heat-illness deaths reaching even people in their 20s, coping with the heat is no distant matter for the Chinese community living in Korea.
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, Yangsan recorded 42.5°C at 1:26 p.m. on Aug. 2. It is the highest temperature observed in the country since modern weather observation began in 1904. The previous high was 41.9°C, set on Aug. 1, 2018, in Chowol-eup, Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province.
광고 문의 · 300×250A day that broke a 122-year record
Across the 97 climate-statistics stations the agency ranks, and even adding in the dense network of automatic weather stations (AWS) laid down since 1973, no reading had ever topped 42°C. This 42.5°C is the first to cross that wall.
Heat is not only a matter of a single peak reading. Tropical nights, when temperatures fail to drop below 25°C even after dark, are persisting across the country, repeating a vicious cycle in which bodies heated through the day cannot cool overnight.
Casualties and the vulnerable
Disaster-grade heat translated straight into loss of life. Elderly people working in fields died of heat illness one after another, and heat-illness deaths appeared even among those in their 20s, a sign that the danger is not confined to any one age group.
Outdoor workers, elderly people in poorly cooled housing and those in fragile health are especially at risk. Local governments are expanding cooling shelters, urging people to limit outdoor activity and raising their level of response.
Not a passing spell
The agency does not see this heat as a passing spell that will retreat within days. Record-breaking heat is forecast to continue nationwide next week, suggesting a fight against the heat throughout early August.
Drought and water shortages compound the strain on farming and household water supplies. The drought stage was raised at Miryang Dam on the Nakdong River and Pyeongnim Dam on the Yeongsan River, and some areas find themselves paradoxically hoping a typhoon will arrive to bring rain.
A third perspective
Hwagyo Sibo does not treat this heat as mere 'hot-weather news.' A temperature past a 122-year record reads less as an oddity than as an indicator that climate is shifting from exception to routine. Rather than asserting a single cause, we place observed facts beside the reality faced by vulnerable groups so readers can prepare for themselves. For Chinese families rooted in Korea, too, water, shade and a check-in with a neighbor are this summer's surest safety net.
