The heaviest rainfall in half a century caused widespread flooding in South Korea
Flooding and landslides hit areas that had recently needed emergency water supplies, showing the strain from rapid shifts between drought and extreme rain.
esmaspäev, 17. august 2026 21:34
A record rainstorm hit Geoje, South Gyeongsang, on Monday, dumping rainfall the Korea Meteorological Administration said is statistically expected only once every 200 years and triggering flooding and landslides.
The Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Geoje had received 633.2 millimeters, or 24.9 inches, of rain as of 4 p.m. Monday. That was the city’s highest daily rainfall since weather observations began there in 1972.
Cumulative rainfall in Geoje since Saturday reached 906.9 millimeters, nearly the 935.1 millimeters the region typically receives over an entire summer, based on the 1991-2020 average. Only Gangneung, with 870.5 millimeters, and Daegwallyeong, with 712.5 millimeters during Typhoon Rusa in August 2002, have recorded higher single-day totals in Korea.
Earlier Monday, 124.5 millimeters fell in Geoje in one hour, breaking its previous hourly record of 96.5 millimeters set on July 5, 2001. The figure was the fourth-highest hourly rainfall ever recorded at any of Korea’s Automated Synoptic Observing System stations, including stations that have since closed. Nearby Tongyeong recorded 97.4 millimeters in an hour, a new hourly record there, and its daily total reached a record 450 millimeters.
The heaviest rain was concentrated along the southern coast of South Gyeongsang, where hot, moisture-laden air carried by southerly winds collided with coastal terrain and rapidly intensified rain clouds. A narrow moisture corridor formed between a low-pressure system that had evolved from Typhoon Dolphin, the 13th typhoon of the season, and a high-pressure system to the northeast. “As the low-pressure system moved through, the high-pressure system ahead of it blocked its path, and the resulting weather pattern continued to draw large amounts of moisture into the region,” KMA forecaster Gong Sang-min said.
Sudden extreme rainfall has become more common even after the monsoon season, with Korea recording 15 instances of more than 100 millimeters per hour in 2025, 11 of them after the monsoon. Yeh Sang-wook, a professor in the Department of Marine Convergence Engineering at Hanyang University, said summer rainfall is shifting from prolonged rain over broad areas to very large amounts falling at once over localized areas. Last week, the National Fire Agency issued a nationwide mobilization order to provide emergency water supplies to drought-stricken parts of South Gyeongsang; days later, torrential rain forced another national mobilization order.
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