As the national weather administration issues excessive heat warnings for most regions across the country, families visit the Banpo Hangang River Park in the evening on Aug. 4 to cool off from the steaming weather. (Kim Eun-young)
By Kim Eun-young and Kim Young Shin
Seoul l Aug. 4, 2018
The continuing heat wave across the Korean Peninsula, with temperatures breaking 111-year-old records, has changed people’s daily habits.
On Aug. 1, the daytime temperatures in Seoul and in Hongcheon, Gangwon-do Province, hit 39.6 and 41 C (103.3 and 105.8 F). With the weather as hot as a jjimjilbang sauna, people are looking for meals that can be prepared without needing to be heated up. Also, fewer people are coming out in the daytime for leisure, and more people are going out in the evenings.
Park Yoon Jung, a homemaker in Jung-gu District, Seoul, replaced her daily cooking by ordering in meals because of the recent heat wave. “The sweat just rolls down my face when the air conditioner is off. I don’t dare turn on the stove to cook anything,” she said.
More people are choosing to use indoor cafeterias rather than be exposed to the burning sunlight. “I used to go out to have a gourmet meal away from the office with my colleagues for lunch because I didn’t like the cafeteria,” said Kim Chaerin, an office worker in Gwanghwamun. “These days, however, the weather is so hot that we just head straight to the cafeteria.”
“I don’t have the energy to go outside during this deadly heat wave,” said Park Hyung Jun, a student at the University of Suwon. “Nowadays, I ride my bike or walk my dog at night.”
Kim Hyun Bin, who visited Haeundae Beach in Busan in late July, said, “The water and the sand gets too hot in the daytime, so I enjoy the beach from the late night through to the early morning.”
The record-high temperatures across Korea have changed the summer scene here, too. These new daily routines are expected to continue for now as the steaming weather is likely to continue under the influence of a North Pacific anticyclone system, said the Korea Meteorological Administration.
eykim86@korea.kr
