Typhoon Ewinar
Before I came to Korea, I'd read reports about the seasonal weather that Korea goes through, with the Monsoon period lasting roughly a month through the late June early July months. Last years "monsoon" season came and went without a wimper; sure it rained a lot, but its just like a rainy April that we have in North America. Well, all that monsoon talk finally made sense just in the past 24 hours.
Typhoon Ewinar (who picked that name for Typhoon submissions?) came through the south of Korea, and it was looking like it was going to pass Seoul; somethat that more than just a few of us were hoping for. There were six reported deaths in the south of Korea from flooding, power failure/shock. However, due to strong easterly winds, it was supposed to fly east of Seoul. That was until around 12:30 this morning, Tuesday July 12. Around 12:30, just about all national weather forecasters simultaneously shat a proverbial brick as their previously reported "passing by" of the typhoon/monsoon changed its direction, and the monsoon which always follows a typhoon decided to veer just enough left to hammer Seoul, right before the city workers could organize their resources. Starting at 2am, Seoul stated getting pelted with somewhere in the range of 300mm of rain AN HOUR. It was incredible to watch, and an absolute horror for just about anyone who works. By six am, there were reported floods all over the place, and a large amount of subway stations were turned into rivers of water, where almost all of the subway station platforms were flooded; a good six feet from the bottom where the subway tracks are. Just about the only people grinning were taxi drivers, who couldn't keep up with the demand. Where we live, things weren't that bad at all; I'm sure that our relatively new surroundings were much better off than the north end of the city, which is not as new and wealthy as the south of Seoul.
As of right now, its been raining straight since 2am this morning (its 9:30pm) and the weather has died down to where the rain is just a whimper. I bet you wish you could be here right now....All in all, I'm glad I got to experience it; now i know what to tell people when i say "monsoon".
Typhoon Ewinar (who picked that name for Typhoon submissions?) came through the south of Korea, and it was looking like it was going to pass Seoul; somethat that more than just a few of us were hoping for. There were six reported deaths in the south of Korea from flooding, power failure/shock. However, due to strong easterly winds, it was supposed to fly east of Seoul. That was until around 12:30 this morning, Tuesday July 12. Around 12:30, just about all national weather forecasters simultaneously shat a proverbial brick as their previously reported "passing by" of the typhoon/monsoon changed its direction, and the monsoon which always follows a typhoon decided to veer just enough left to hammer Seoul, right before the city workers could organize their resources. Starting at 2am, Seoul stated getting pelted with somewhere in the range of 300mm of rain AN HOUR. It was incredible to watch, and an absolute horror for just about anyone who works. By six am, there were reported floods all over the place, and a large amount of subway stations were turned into rivers of water, where almost all of the subway station platforms were flooded; a good six feet from the bottom where the subway tracks are. Just about the only people grinning were taxi drivers, who couldn't keep up with the demand. Where we live, things weren't that bad at all; I'm sure that our relatively new surroundings were much better off than the north end of the city, which is not as new and wealthy as the south of Seoul.
As of right now, its been raining straight since 2am this morning (its 9:30pm) and the weather has died down to where the rain is just a whimper. I bet you wish you could be here right now....All in all, I'm glad I got to experience it; now i know what to tell people when i say "monsoon".
7/28/2006 06:30:00 a.m.
Sounds amazing. My wife has just come out to Seoul. She arrived on the 17th so she missed that, but has commmented on how wet is has been since then.
I'm coming over in a couple of weeks. I'll add you to my blogroll. top