First 10 days of August rank as hottest on record

The nationwide average temperature, excluding Jeju Island, came to 29.1 degrees Celsius (84.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the first 10 days of August, the highest on record, the state weather service said on Tuesday.

This marks the hottest first 10-day period of August in 53 years since 1973, when the weather observation network was expanded nationwide, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

The average daily maximum temperature in the first 10 days of this month was 34.4 degrees Celsius, the second highest after the 34.7 degrees Celsius recorded in August 2018, the KMA said.

The average daily minimum temperature, an indicator of night heat, was 24.8 degrees Celsius for the same period, the third highest on record following 25 degrees Celsius in 2022 and 24.9 degrees Celsius in 2018.

The highest temperature recorded over the 10 days was 42.5 degrees Celsius, observed in the southeastern city of Yangsan at 1:26 p.m. on Aug. 2. It was also the highest temperature recorded in the country since 1904, when modern meteorological observations began, according to the KMA.

In total, the daily maximum temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius at 32 locations nationwide in the first 10 days of this month, the KMA noted.

Yonhap