Snow Slams South Korea

Courtesy: Accuweather

Snow piled up by the foot, the heaviest fall of it in more than a century, has wreaked havoc along the east coast of South Korea.


Reports tell of hundreds of house collapses. Government deployment of 12,000 soldiers has been undertaken to rescue stranded motorists, said to number in the hundreds.

The deep falls of snow were triggered late last week by cold, wet winds off the Sea of Japan piling against the mountain spine of eastern Korea.

Little or none of this snow reached Seoul and western South Korea.

The province of Gangwon was hardest hit, as in one city there was a 2.6-foot fall of snow within 24 hours. This was reportedly the highest snowfall in 100 years of weather records.

According to meteorological data available to AccuWeather.com meteorologists, snowfall was about 40 inches (more than one meter) within two days at Donhae, Gangwon. This snowfall had water equivalent to 4 inches of rain, or about two-thirds more than what normally falls throughout February.

At the start of this week, another storm dumped up to another foot of snow on the hard-hit areas.