Heavy rain in South Korea by Tomasz Schafernaker
Torrential rain has lashed South Korea for much of this week giving rise to floods which have killed at least seven people and left scores more missing.
The rain started pounding many parts of the country on Wednesday and continued for the next few days. Flash floods inundated hundreds of homes, forcing families to evacuate and seek refuge in temporary shelters. More than 1,220 hectares of farmland have been washed away with large areas of paddy fields damaged.
In the northeastern county of Yanggu, three people were killed when a mudslide tore through their home on Thursday. Forecasters said that many parts of the country have seen up to 230mm (9 inches) of rain.
South Korea is one of the most northerly countries in that part of the world to be affected by the great seasonal wind reversal called the Asiatic monsoon. In winter the winds are predominantly from the west and north, bringing very cold but dry air from north China and Siberia. In summer the winds are mainly from the east and south, bringing warm, moist air from the Pacific Ocean. About once a year a typhoon moves up from the South China Sea and brings very heavy rain and strong winds at any time between June and September. This can often lead to flooding.
The recent floods were not caused by a typhoon, but attributed to large areas of heavy monsoonal rain which ran up the East China Sea. Although it has turned a little drier for today, further heavy showers are likely this weekend and into next week, bringing more misery for those affected by the recent flooding.
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