Hot, Dry Weather Defies Monsoon Forecasts

People beat the heat at Haundae Beach in Busan on Saturday.

The summer monsoon has officially begun, but Korea is seeing more dry days than rainy ones.

The Korea Meteorological Administration earlier predicted a proper monsoon this year after two years of relatively dry rainy seasons, because El Niño with its scorching temperatures recently came to an end after starting in the spring of 2014.

But central parts have had only one day of rain from Tuesday until Sunday and these conditions are forecast to continue until Friday. Southern parts saw between 10 to 60 mm of rainfall last Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but Seoul only got 30.5 mm on Wednesday.

The KMA now says southern pats will see more downpours on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the seasonal rain front, but the weather in central parts will be hot and humid until Friday.

On June 16, the KMA forecast around 350 mm of rainfall this rainy season, similar to the average from 1981 to 2010 and more than twice as much as 2014, which was one of the driest on record.

The inaccurate forecast has led to a barrage of complaints.

Now the KMA says monsoon rains are expected to return to the central region around Saturday.