August 25, 2016 12:57
Korea is experiencing the hottest August on record, with some 2,049 people taken to hospital emergency rooms for heat-related illnesses as of Tuesday, nearly double the average.
More than 7 million heads of livestock and fish have died, and lack of rain has caused crops to wither away across the country.
Seoul saw the hottest month since weather observation started in October 1907.
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the highest average temperature in August in Seoul was 34.5 degrees Celsius, far higher than previous record of 32.9 degrees in August 1994. That was 4.3 degrees higher than the 30-year average between 1981 and 2010.
The number of heat-related deaths will also likely break the record as seventeen people have already this year.
Weather forecasters were perplexed, and the KMA prematurely announced the end of the heat wave as many as four times in just 10 days.
The record temperatures even caused the country's first case of cholera in 15 years.
The KMA's latest guess is that the heat will start abating this Saturday.
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