Korea sets an all-time heat record
Yangsan hit 41.4C on 31 July, the highest temperature ever recorded in Korea
The three lines
- Yangsan reached 40.3C on 29 July, the first 40C reading ever logged in Korea during July
- Two days later the same station hit 41.4C, breaking the national all-time record
- Heat illness cases reached 1,638 with 12 deaths as the alert stayed at its top tier
Key questions
- What is the highest temperature ever recorded in Korea
- 41.4C at Yangsan in South Gyeongsang Province on 31 July 2026. The previous benchmark had stood since the 2018 heat wave.
- Why is Korea so hot this summer
- The North Pacific high and the Tibetan high overlapped across the peninsula, stacking two warm air masses and trapping heat. The same pattern pushed tropical-night counts to a record.
- How many people have died from the heat in Korea
- Twelve confirmed heat-illness deaths against 1,638 cases as of 31 July. Authorities note this is roughly 75% of the equivalent figure for last year.
Korea has recorded 40C before, but never in July, and never as high as it did at the end of this one. Between 29 and 31 July a single station in Yangsan, in the country's southeast, logged three consecutive days above 40C and finished with 41.4C — the highest temperature in the national record. For readers outside Korea the interest is less the number than the mechanism, because the same setup is now recurring across East Asia.
1. What happened
The sequence was compressed. On 29 July Yangsan reached 40.3C, the first time any Korean station had touched 40C during July. On 30 July it did it again, which had never happened on consecutive days. On 31 July it reached 41.4C.
The cause was a stacking of two systems. The North Pacific high, which normally dominates the Korean summer, was overlaid by the Tibetan high pushing east at higher altitude. Two warm air masses sitting on top of each other suppress vertical mixing, so heat accumulates near the surface through the night as well as the day. Tropical-night counts — nights where the minimum stays above 25C — reached a record for the season.
2. The numbers
| Date | Station | Temperature | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 July | Yangsan | 40.3C | first July 40C on record |
| 30 July | Yangsan | above 40C | first consecutive 40C days |
| 31 July | Yangsan | 41.4C | national all-time high |
Health effects tracked the temperature closely. Cumulative heat-illness cases reached 1,638 with 12 deaths. Officials described the death toll as running at roughly 75% of the comparable point last year — lower, but against a higher temperature, which suggests the alert system and cooling-centre network absorbed part of the load.
Korea revised its heat alert structure on 1 June this year, adding a third and highest tier. The criteria and the clinical response are covered in a companion reference piece published the same day.
3. What is still open
The death figures are provisional. Korean heat-illness deaths are reclassified after cause-of-death review, and the final number for the season will not be known until autumn. The 75% comparison is therefore a running estimate rather than a settled result.
Whether this is a new plateau or a single extreme is also unresolved. One station reaching 41.4C does not by itself establish a trend, and the overlapping-high pattern that produced it is not guaranteed to repeat. What is established is that the July ceiling moved: a threshold that had never been crossed in that month was crossed three days running.
Sources
- MBC News — nationwide heat and tropical nights continue
- YTN — Yangsan reaches 40C, highest of the year
- Aju Business Daily — Yangsan 41.4C, third straight day above 40C
- Newsis — Yangsan 41.4C, highest since observations began
- Kyunghyang Shinmun — heat deaths at about 75% of last year's level
- Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency — first critical heat alert