Domestic climate experts point out that Korea’s Yeongdong region also has meteorological and topographical similarities with Los Angeles, USA, where this fire disaster occurred. Specifically, ① local strong winds blowing from the inland to the coast, ② a weather environment that is gradually becoming hotter and drier, and ③ extensive community facilities extending from the area adjacent to the forest to the coast. In fact, a similar trend has been observed in both regions over the past 20 years, with fires becoming larger.
The east coast of Gangwon has been suffering from large-scale fires since the 2000s. The largest forest fire in Korea was the Uljin-Samcheok forest fire that occurred in March 2022 and burned 249.4㎢, or 41% of the area of Seoul. Winter precipitation in the Yeongdong region, which fell by 14.7% compared to the average year, was cited as a factor contributing to the forest fire at the time.
The previous largest forest fire in Korea was the one that occurred along the east coast in April 2000 (237.9㎢). The Gangneung forest fire that occurred in 2023 also burned 3.79㎢ of forest. As in the United States, fires have been on the rise since the 2000s.
In the Yeongdong region, local strong winds blow between Yangyang-gun and Goseong-gun from March to May. Air currents generated by mobile high pressure in spring become dry as they pass over the Taebaek Mountains. It is similar to the Santa Ana wind that blows over the Santa Ana Valley in Orange County, USA, and then blows along the southern coast of California and the Pacific coast.
In the East Coast area, snow accumulated during the winter suppresses the scale of fires from growing until spring. However, due to the recent effects of climate change, the influence of maritime high pressure has become stronger, resulting in hot and dry environments, and this moistening effect is decreasing. In December 2022, an abnormal phenomenon occurred in Goseong, Yangyang, and Gangneung in Gangwon-do, with precipitation amounting to only 0.0 mm. Recently, winter precipitation in the Yeongdong region has fallen to 80-90% of the normal level, and the cumulative precipitation in the Yeongdong region of Gangwon-do for a month from the 15th of last month to the 14th of this month was 1.9mm, which is only about 9.1% of the average (31.2mm).
“California, USA, is similar to the Yeongdong region in terms of meteorological and topographical conditions in that it is influenced by the sea and mountain ranges at the same time,” said Dr. Chun-Geun Kwon of the National Forest Research Institute’s Forest Fire Research Department. “As the frequency of California fires became more frequent and their scale increased, the Yeongdong region also experienced similar fires.” “There is a trend of increasing damage,” he said.
Reporter Lim Hyun-seok [email protected]
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