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Frost and heavy snowfall in the Far East
The Far East has been grappling with a wave of extreme frost for the past few days, so much so that the lowest temperature ever recorded in China was precisely in Jingtao, where the mercury column dropped to -53°C. But why all this cold? Our Francesco Nucera explains why in the article.
Korea and Japan are the main targets of the freeze. After China, Korea and Japan are hit by this freezing incursion of Siberian air. About the Japanese country there is heavy snowfall on the north and west coasts towards the north due to the typical SEA-EFFECT-SNOW phenomenon (read what it is below). This time, however, the inrush of cold air is so overwhelming that it also brings snow to some eastern and southern stretches of coast, and therefore faces the Pacific, as is the case in Kagoshima. Flakes that are descending to the outskirts of Tokyo in these hours, where the thermometer could record values of -5°C/-6°C in the next few hours. More than 2 meters of snow expected on the Japanese reliefs within 48 hours. Persistent ventilation, with gusts from the north exceeding 80-100 km/h and storm surges with waves up to 6-7m. A real winter storm that will inevitably lead to inconveniences and critical problems. Difficult conditions that will continue throughout the week. In Korea, on the other hand, frost rather than snow will cause the main problems. As we write this, the thermometer in Seoul, capital of South Korea, is touching -16°C and could fall further to -17/-18°C. The entire state is attacked from north to south by extremely cold currents, with temperatures ranging from -10ºC to -22ºC below zero. We are talking about an area used to extreme cold, but this time some records could be broken.
What is Sea Effect Snow: The flow of very dry air masses with temperatures close to or below 0°C at the warmer sea surface causes massive evaporation and thus a significant transport of moisture into the atmosphere. This makes it unstable and even creates heavy snow showers that are driven onto the exposed coasts.
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