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SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea mobilised thousands of government workers and soldiers Monday to clear a record snowfall that hit the country's northeastern province of Gangwon.
Weathermen said up to 100 centimetres (39 inches) of snow fell in some mountain areas in the northeastern port of Samcheok Friday and Saturday, the heaviest since records began in 1911.
Thousands in S. Korea help clear record snow - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110214/wl_asia_afp/skoreaweathersnow_20110214064812 - broken link)
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boompa
That area has a lot of Ski resorts. They've seen snow before. But havng spent several winters in Korea it does seem cold there is worse than cold here
Seoul is probably the coldest place near sea level for the latitude I know. It's January average of -5C certainly isn't anything to baulk it when you consider it's 37'N near the coast. Amazingly that's as cold as Beijing, 39'N and 200km inland! That's equilvant to Virginia Beach having winters as cold as Philadelphia, or the Jersey shore having winters as cold as Scranton.
Seoul is probably the coldest place near sea level for the latitude I know. It's January average of -5C certainly isn't anything to baulk it when you consider it's 37'N near the coast. Amazingly that's as cold as Beijing, 39'N and 200km inland! That's equilvant to Virginia Beach having winters as cold as Philadelphia, or the Jersey shore having winters as cold as Scranton.
I've wondered about this recently, actually. It seems that in East Asia, winters especially get warmer as you go west or inland. Which is quite the opposite of eastern North America where cities on the coast are slightly warmer than comparable places in the interior. I'm not sure I have a good explanation - if anyone does let me know!
I have 2 guesses but neither of them is convincing:
1. There is a cold current coming in from the Sea of Okhotsk which might be cooling coastal locations. However I doubt much of the water penetrates into the Sea of Japan since the straits there are narrow and shallow.
2. I could be that the positioning of the high pressure system (the Siberian High) is such that places farther east (the Korean peninsula, the Russian Pacific coast, Manchuria) get most of their winds from northeast or north. (Winds spin clockwise around a high pressure). Beijing, being farther west, sits south of the high pressure and so the winds don't come directly from the north.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,047,835 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMarbles
I've wondered about this recently, actually. It seems that in East Asia, winters especially get warmer as you go west or inland. Which is quite the opposite of eastern North America where cities on the coast are slightly warmer than comparable places in the interior. I'm not sure I have a good explanation - if anyone does let me know!
I have 2 guesses but neither of them is convincing:
1. There is a cold current coming in from the Sea of Okhotsk which might be cooling coastal locations. However I doubt much of the water penetrates into the Sea of Japan since the straits there are narrow and shallow.
2. I could be that the positioning of the high pressure system (the Siberian High) is such that places farther east (the Korean peninsula, the Russian Pacific coast, Manchuria) get most of their winds from northeast or north. (Winds spin clockwise around a high pressure). Beijing, being farther west, sits south of the high pressure and so the winds don't come directly from the north.
Anyway, I have no idea.
You got close with the second one. The Siberian anticyclone is the northern Hemisphere's 'cold pole', it frankly blows the North Pole away in terms of winter cold (Mohe, China, at the latitude of Manchester even beats the North Pole). You'd probably be surprised to learn that the coldest temperatures recorded in the Northern Hemisphere (officially, anyway) are fairly near the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in far eastern Siberia. It gets colder here than it does in the very heart of Russia, western Siberia.
The sheer high pressure and landmass of the Asian continent is indeed what's responsible for cold winters all the way as far south as Hanoi, Vietnam. To give you an idea, Shanghai is at the latitude of Cairo but as cold as London, Nanjing is at the latitude of Charleston, SC, but has winters like those of D.C., while Beijing is at the latitude (and a similar distance inland) as Washington D.C. with the winters of Portland, Maine.
I think what gives Seoul the edge over Beijing is that there is a corridor of relatively open land/sea from the NE, just as you said. To the north are the mountains of North Korea. Pyongyang, I believe, is the third coldest capital city after Ulaan Baator, Mongolia and Astana, Kazahstan. All of these cities make Moscow or Ottawa seem almost tropical.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,047,835 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovemycomputer90
^Could it be SST?
In a way, because it's so cold up here the ocean freezes over and doesn't really moderate the temperature. It's the same as what happens with Hudson Bay. But overall, it's the fact there is so much land and so little sea is what makes it so cold.
You got close with the second one. The Siberian anticyclone is the northern Hemisphere's 'cold pole', it frankly blows the North Pole away in terms of winter cold (Mohe, China, at the latitude of Manchester even beats the North Pole). You'd probably be surprised to learn that the coldest temperatures recorded in the Northern Hemisphere (officially, anyway) are fairly near the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in far eastern Siberia. It gets colder here than it does in the very heart of Russia, western Siberia.
The sheer high pressure and landmass of the Asian continent is indeed what's responsible for cold winters all the way as far south as Hanoi, Vietnam. To give you an idea, Shanghai is at the latitude of Cairo but as cold as London, Nanjing is at the latitude of Charleston, SC, but has winters like those of D.C., while Beijing is at the latitude (and a similar distance inland) as Washington D.C. with the winters of Portland, Maine.
I think what gives Seoul the edge over Beijing is that there is a corridor of relatively open land/sea from the NE, just as you said. To the north are the mountains of North Korea. Pyongyang, I believe, is the third coldest capital city after Ulaan Baator, Mongolia and Astana, Kazahstan. All of these cities make Moscow or Ottawa seem almost tropical.
Interesting information. How do the extreme cold temperatures at temperate and subtropical latitudes in North America compare to Asia?
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