Currently — August 8, 2023: Flash flood potential for North & South Korea this week

The weather, currently.

After curving eastward at the last minute, Typhoon Khanun is now bearing down on the Korean Peninsula.

Parts of eastern North Korea could receive up to 500 mm (20 in) of rain in just 48 hours later this week as Khanun passes through. It’s the latest weather disaster in North Korea after a drought-filled spring prompted a food crisis, and heat waves and heavy rains plagued the authoritarian state in July.

There have been only 5 typhoon-strength storms to make landfall in North Korea since complete records begin in 1945. Khanun is expected to restrengthen over the next two days and traverse directly over Seoul, South Korea, while directing most of its strongest wind, storm surge, and rainfall on the eastern half of the Koreas.

Khanun will only be able to restrengthen because it will be traversing some of the most unusually warm water in the world between Japan and the Koreas, approximately 4-5°C (7-9°F) hotter than normal. That will also act to enhance the rainfall it produces.

Last week, Typhoon Doksuri brought Beijing its largest rainstorm in recorded history, and had Khanun taken a similar track, it would have greatly compounded flooding in China.

—Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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