Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 left · 1 international
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- Yangsan hit 42.5C on Sunday, South Korea’s highest temperature since records began in 1904.
- It was the fifth consecutive day Yangsan exceeded 40C, part of a broader heatwave with over 20 localities under emergency alerts.
- Both sources link the extreme heat to a global pattern of climate-driven extreme weather, and both note North Korea and Japan are also suffering severe heat.
- Both cite the KMA’s new emergency heatwave alert category, introduced this year, triggered by 38C perceived or 39C actual temperatures.
Where they differ
- The Guardian focuses more on on-the-ground details within South Korea: specific city temperatures (Gyeongju, Daegu, Busan), a personal quote from a Seoul resident, the prime minister’s safety directives, and Typhoon Dolphin’s potential influence on the heat.
- Al Jazeera frames the story more globally, using South Korea’s record as an entry point to survey simultaneous extreme weather worldwide, including wildfires in Greece, Spain, France, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and heat risk in the western United States.
- Al Jazeera includes KMA historical data showing heatwave days have more than doubled over five years compared with the 1970s, a statistic the Guardian’s excerpt does not include.
- The Guardian details specific official guidance (move to cooling centers, avoid non-air-conditioned indoor spaces) more thoroughly, while Al Jazeera spends more space on Japan’s heatstroke alerts across 30 prefectures.
What happened
South Korea recorded its highest temperature since modern weather observation began in 1904. The southeastern city of Yangsan reached 42.5C (108.5F) at around 1:26pm local time on Sunday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). It was the fifth straight day temperatures in Yangsan topped 40C. Nearby Gyeongju, about 240km southeast of Seoul, hit 40.3C, its hottest reading in eight years.
More than 20 localities across South Korea were placed under emergency heatwave alerts on Sunday, a new warning tier introduced this year to respond to increasingly severe summers. That alert kicks in when forecasts show a perceived temperature of at least 38C or an actual temperature of 39C or higher for the day. The KMA urged people to immediately stop outdoor activity, warning that indoor spaces without air conditioning are dangerous, and told residents to move to cooling centers or shaded areas and stay hydrated.
How people and officials are responding
Residents crowded into air-conditioned malls, cafes and mist-spray zones set up in Seoul to escape the heat. One office worker, 27-year-old Ju Dong-yeol, told AFP he had taken shelter in a Starbucks with his parents because it was too hot to do anything outside, saying he had no option but to stay in air-conditioned places like home, malls and cafes. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook ordered local officials to step up safety checks on vulnerable residents and to secure stable power and water supplies.
Seoul itself was forecast to reach 37C on Monday as easterly winds push the extreme heat further inland, with South Jeolla and South Gyeongsang provinces expected to exceed 39C, which the KMA described as life-threatening. Officials are also watching Typhoon Dolphin, tracking toward southeastern China south of the Korean peninsula; its path could raise humidity and affect how long the heat lasts.
The wider regional and global picture
North Korea has also been hit hard, with state media reporting temperatures as high as 40C in some regions and Pyongyang residents enduring a week of nights that never dropped below 25C. In Japan, severe heat prompted heatstroke alerts across 30 of the country’s 47 prefectures, with public broadcaster NHK warning of dangerous conditions in both eastern and western parts of the country.
The extreme heat extends well beyond East Asia. In Europe, wildfires fed by high temperatures and strong winds swept through parts of Greece, forcing evacuations, while Spain and France faced hot, dry conditions that raised the risk of further fires. In North Africa, extreme heat and strong winds are fueling major wildfires in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco; Tunisia has brought in international firefighting aircraft to help crews protect forests, farmland and communities. In the western United States, forecasters warned that temperatures could break records over the weekend, sharply raising wildfire risk in areas already affected by drought and fire.
Why this heat is becoming more common
KMA data shows the average number of heatwave days per year in South Korea has more than doubled over the past five years to 19, compared with an average of eight days during the 1970s. The agency defines a heatwave day as one where the maximum temperature reaches at least 33C, and a tropical night as one where overnight temperatures stay at or above 25C. Scientists say human-driven climate change is making heatwaves and other extreme weather events more frequent, longer-lasting and more intense, a pattern reflected in this year’s droughts, wildfires, floods and powerful storms occurring simultaneously across multiple continents.
Sources
Featured photo: Kimhs5400 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)