[Weather] Yellow Dust Across the Country... Light Rain in the Afternoon in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and Gangwon Province

On the 17th, yellow dust originating from China was carried by the northwest wind into South Korea, causing the view of downtown Seoul from a building in Jongno, Seoul to appear hazy due to the yellow dust. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

On Wednesday the 12th, yellow dust will begin to affect the western coast of Gyeonggi Province and gradually expand nationwide overnight.

Fine dust levels are expected to be 'bad' in the Seoul metropolitan area and Chungnam, while other regions will have 'moderate' levels. Sejong, Chungbuk, Busan, Daegu, and Ulsan will also experience 'bad' levels briefly in the morning.

Most of the central and western regions will see stagnant air in the morning, causing residual fine dust and domestically generated fine dust to accumulate. However, during the day, air circulation vertically will reduce concentrations, but at night, the influx of foreign fine dust and yellow dust will cause levels to rise again.

The sky will be mostly cloudy nationwide, but the central region will gradually clear from night.

In the afternoon, occasional rain will fall in the Seoul metropolitan area, inland and mountainous areas of Gangwon, and from afternoon to evening in Jeju Island. Expected precipitation amounts are less than 5mm for Jeju Island and the five western islands, and around 1mm for Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi, and inland and mountainous areas of Gangwon.

Between morning and evening, there may be raindrops less than 0.1mm in the Chungnam and Jeolla regions, and from afternoon to evening in Chungbuk as well.

Morning low temperatures are expected to range from 0 to 8 degrees Celsius, and daytime highs from 10 to 17 degrees Celsius.

In Yeongdong, Gangwon Province, strong winds with gusts around 15 m/s (around 20 m/s in mountainous areas) are expected from the morning. Sea waves will be 0.5 to 1.5 meters in the East Sea coastal waters, and 0.5 to 1.0 meters in the West Sea and South Sea coastal waters.

Wave heights in the offshore waters (about 200 km from the coastline) are predicted to be 0.5 to 2.5 meters in the East Sea, 0.5 to 1.5 meters in the West Sea, and 0.5 to 2.0 meters in the South Sea.