Two people are on a bicycle at Nodeul Island in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on May 6. [NEWS1]
Spring rain is set to fall across central Korea on Thursday afternoon before giving way to clear skies and pleasant weather through the weekend, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) on Thursday.
A band of rain clouds is forecast to move through the greater Seoul area and push southward through the night, bringing around 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) of rainfall. Showers were expected to begin in Incheon and northern Gyeonggi during the day, then spread to most of the greater Seoul area by late afternoon. Midday temperatures are likely to stay around 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) while the rain lasts.
Once the rain clears, cooler air moving in from the north is set to bring temperatures slightly below or around seasonal norms.
The weekend is expected to be sunny with low fine dust levels, conditions that forecasters say will draw large crowds to outdoor destinations. In Seoul, morning lows of around 10 degrees and afternoon highs of 23 to 24 degrees are forecast for Saturday and Sunday.
A mobile high-pressure system will keep skies clear across most of the country through the weekend, the KMA added, but warned of a significant gap between daytime and nighttime temperatures. Strong sunshine will push temperatures up during the day, while radiative cooling will cause them to drop sharply after dark.
Warm southwesterly winds are expected to raise temperatures steadily into next week, with near-summer heat approaching 30 degrees possible from midweek onward.
Skies are clear on May 6 at the Nodeul Island in Yongsan District, central Seoul [NEWS1]
In a related development, Japan's rainy season has arrived roughly a week early. The Japan Meteorological Agency announced that the seasonal rains began in the Amami region on May 3 and reached Okinawa on May 4, driven by an earlier-than-usual expansion of the North Pacific high-pressure system, which pushed the stationary rain front northward.
Korea's weather agency said, however, that Japan's early rainy season should not be taken as a sign that Korea's own monsoon will arrive ahead of schedule. On average, the rainy season begins on Jeju Island around June 19, in the southern region around June 23, and in the central region around June 25. The KMA explained that the cold air masses to the north are currently preventing the stationary front from moving far enough north to affect the Korean Peninsula, and that the country is unlikely to come under monsoon influence for some time yet.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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