A woman wraps up warm against the cold in Seoul on Wednesday.

The central region was gripped by a cold wave on Thursday, with the morning low in Seoul plunging to -4 degrees Celsius, down from about 9 degrees down from Wednesday. The Korea Meteorological Administration on Wednesday forecast strong winds with speeds of 4-5 m/s, bringing down the windchill effect to -8-9 degrees.

Some 1 cm snow was expected in the Jeolla provincial regions.

The reason was the arrival of a cold continental anticyclone. The KMA warned commuters to be careful on their way to work.

A cold weather warning was issued for 17 municipalities in the central region. The warning is issued when temperatures are expected to drop over 10 degrees from the previous day.

"Relatively strong winds will blow until Thursday morning, bringing the windchill effect further down," said Kim Seung-bae, a weatherman for TV Chosun, which is set to launch broadcasting on Dec. 1. "The cold weather will likely abate from Sunday morning."