Record 41.6 C Heat Hits Yangsan for 4th Straight Day in Southeast Korea

What this means for travelers

Anyone traveling to Yangsan, about 310 kilometers southeast of Seoul, is arriving in an area where KMA recorded its highest temperature since 1904 — 41.6 C — on Aug. 1, 2026, extending a streak of four straight days above 40 C. KMA's official long-term-station record and Korea's wider observation history use different station sets; the 41.9 C Gwangju reading from 2018 came from a site outside KMA's 97 long-term stations.

New national heat record

At 2:08 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2026, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) logged a reading of 41.6 C at its station in Yangsan, a city roughly 310 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The reading is the highest recorded since modern weather observation on the Korean Peninsula began in 1904, based on data from KMA's network of 97 long-term observation stations.
It marked the fourth straight day that temperatures in Yangsan topped 40 C.
The new high surpassed the previous day's reading of 41.4 C, also in Yangsan, which KMA had called the highest since 1904 before it was overtaken on Aug. 1.

How the reading compares

A temperature of 41.9 C was recorded in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, on Aug. 1, 2018, but that site is not among KMA's 97 official long-term stations, so it is not counted toward the national record.
KMA said only three temperatures higher than 41.4 C have ever been recorded across Korea's wider observation history.
A reading of 42 C would mark the threshold for an absolute national heat record, according to KMA.

Sources

One source. Everything above rests on The Korea Herald alone. We have not found a second, independent account of it, so treat the detail as that organisation states it and check the original before you rely on it.

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What this means for travelers

New national heat record

How the reading compares

Corrections and updates

Sources