Korea to see coldest day of winter this weekend

The coldest weather of this winter will hit Korea this weekend, with the morning low in Seoul to plunge to minus 11 degrees Celsius Saturday and minus 13 degrees Sunday, the coldest day this winter, due to high continental atmospheric pressure spreading from the north, said the Korea Meteorological Administration on Friday.

The entire Korean Peninsula will be in the grip of freezing winter weather, with temperatures to plummet to minus 15 degrees in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province; minus 17 in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province; minus 13 in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province; and minus 3 in Busan.

The daytime high will also remain in negative territory throughout the weekend. The weather agency issued a cold wave warning for inland areas in the northern part of Gyeonggi Province and a cold wave alert for inland areas of central and southern Gyeonggi.

Areas in and around the Seoul metropolitan region and the Chungcheong provinces saw snow Friday, with Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province, recording 8.5 centimeters.

A string of traffic accidents and severe congestion occurred as these areas suffered heavy snowfall in addition to snow that fell Wednesday yet to melt. Some 40 flights, including 15 international, were canceled.

The cold wave also caused the power supply alert to be raised to the level of “attention” Friday for the first time this year. Electricity authorities took emergency measures, including the first and second stages of voltage adjustment and automatic power generation in the private sector, as electricity reserves fell to 4.5 million kilowatts at 8:38 am Friday.

When the reserves continued to decline further, the “attention” alert was issued at 11:25 a.m. and lifted around noon. The reserves fell to as low as 3.22 million kilowatts momentarily around 11:40 a.m.