Seoul was hit by heavy downpours and strong winds all day Tuesday. The metropolis saw 140.5 mm of rainfall as of 10 p.m., using the rainfall in the Jongno area as the standard. It has suffered accumulated rainfall of 635.9 mm since late June, when the rainy season started.

That was the heaviest for this period since national liberation in 1945, but the third heaviest since weather forecasts began in Korea in 1908, following 1940 (989.2 mm) and 1930 (731.6 mm).

And the downpours show a different pattern from the consistent rainfall of past rainy seasons, with a few sunny days, followed by heavy squalls on a single day. This month, Seoul had more than 90 mm of torrential rains on July 2, 9 and 12 but had less than 1 mm or sunshine on other days. Rainfalls also showed a micro pattern, with some metropolitan areas getting more than 100 mm of rain per day and others less than 10 mm.

People wait for a bus in heavy rain in Seoul on Tuesday.

Experts attributed the abnormal pattern to climate change. Jin Gee-beom, the chief of the weather forecast bureau of the Korea Meteorological Administration, said, "Global warming makes the weather's ups and downs very steep."

Dr. Kim Tae-kook of the Korea Water Resources Corporation said, "Before this year's rainy season, the weather was relatively dry. But with global warming bringing abnormal changes to the Earth's atmosphere, droughts and floods come alternately as if the shifts changed."

The central part of the Korean Peninsula sustained rain damage, with Gwacheon in Gyeonggi Province recording 266 mm, Chuncheon in Gangwon Province 223.5 mm, and Songpa District in Seoul 206 mm as of 8 p.m.

The KMA said as a seasonal rain front moves south on Wednesday, some areas in the south will see more than 200 mm of rainfall.