A series of super-hot tropical nights has broken South Korea's century-old weather record, according to official data released on Thursday, as a prolonged heatwave has set in on the island, UNN reports with reference to AFP.
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Officials said on Thursday that nighttime temperatures in Seoul remained above 25°C for 22 consecutive days in July, the longest such streak since modern meteorological observations began in October 1907.
In South Korea, such nights are called "tropical nights."
The country's capital was also on track to record its hottest July night ever on Wednesday, when the minimum temperature for the day reached 29.3°C, unless the nighttime temperature rises even higher on Thursday.
According to an analysis of data from the European climate monitoring service Copernicus, June was the hottest month on record for 12 countries.
According to the meteorological office, the intense heat in Seoul is expected to continue.
"Warm air from the North Pacific anticyclone began to affect South Korea a little earlier than usual," Yoon Ki-han, director of the Seoul meteorological forecast department, told AFP.
"As this influence gradually increased, the heat accumulated, much like interest on a savings account, slowly increasing over time," Yoon said.
"Usually, if it's hot for only one day, the temperature rises sharply and then quickly returns to normal. But when the heat persists for several days, the heat does not dissipate completely, but lingers and accumulates with each day," he added.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, 13 people have died this year from heat-related causes, three times more than in the same period last year.
Hundreds of thousands of livestock have also died due to the extreme heat.