Nasty fine dust pollution covers Korea

  • 5 years ago
We start with the atrocious air pollution affecting most of South Korea.
A massive cloud of ultra-fine dust has been lingering over the country for almost a week now,... a depressing situation for those of us who want to go outside and enjoy the early spring weather.
We have our weathercaster Lee Jee-hyun at Banpo Hangang Park, to give us a rather hazy glimpse of Seoul now,
Jee-hyun, what can you tell us?

Good morning, Mark.
Banpo Hangang Park is where I often come to do weather reports in the rainy season or extreme heat,... but today surely is one of disappointing times of the year to be here, when we should be enjoying the early spring weather. Ultra fine dust levels will continue to be high or very high... and this is of course the sixth day in a row that Korea has been in the grip of this toxic smog.

Ultra fine dust alerts are in place for much of the country, an ultra fine dust warning remains in place here in Seoul, and as you can see, there is really no place to escape from the nasty air if you are in Korea. The Environment Ministry says we could see some better air on Thursday, but let's all keep an eye on the dust levels.

Aside from the dust, it's Gyeongchip today according to Asian calendars. Gyeongchip means the awakening of hibernating insects and frogs due to the warm spring weather. The temperature will actually drop a few notches but will continue to hover above seasonal norms.

Meanwhile, Jeju and the southern coastal regions have been seeing light showers and will see some rain until noon. Light sprinkles are expected in the capital area as well in the afternoon, but it won't do much to clear the dust away.

For a closer look at today's highs, daily highs will be a couple of notches lower than yesterday, Seoul will get up to 11 degrees Celsius with a dry weather advisory in place.

Dust levels are slightly lower than yesterday but are still very bad, have your face mask handy throughout the day.

That's all for me at this hour. Stay safe.

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