Monsoon rains soak Korea again, to recede on Wednesday

Passersby walk across Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul barefeet on Tuesday afternoon amid the rain. [YONHAP]

Powerful monsoon rains are predicted to hit the country again until Wednesday morning, potentially with even greater intensity than last week.

The monsoon front hit the southern and western regions first on Tuesday morning.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said the rest of the country was expected to be soaked by Tuesday night before drying up on Wednesday morning.

The early hours of Wednesday morning before dawn will likely bring the most rainfall per hour, with precipitations possibly reaching upwards of 70 millimeters (2.8 inches), weather officials warned.

Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi, collectively comprising greater Seoul, could see heavy rains a couple of hours earlier from Tuesday night.

Greater Seoul, the inland and mountainous areas of Gangwon, North Chungcheong, South Chungcheong, North Jeolla, South Jeolla, Jeju Island, Ulleung Island, Dokdo islets and the southern coastline of South Gyeongsang are forecast to receive about 50 to 100 millimeters of rain until Wednesday morning, or at least 120 millimeters of rain in some areas, according to the KMA weather forecast.

The eastern coastline of Gangwon, southern North Gyeongsang and most of South Gyeongsang are forecast to receive 20 to 60 millimeters until Wednesday morning.

In a statement, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety cautioned the public against driving, mentioning that underground tunnels or low-lying areas could be inundated with water.

While Tuesday was cooler than Monday due to the rain, temperatures are predicted to bounce back up on Wednesday once the rains recede.

In greater Seoul, the morning low will be 22 to 24 degrees Celsius (71.6 to 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, according to the national weather agency, and the afternoon maximum temperature could reach up to 31 degrees Celsius.

Temperatures are expected to rise even higher on Thursday in greater Seoul, potentially soaring up to 33 degrees.

The maximum temperature for the rest of the country on Wednesday and Thursday will likely range between 26 and 35 degrees, with Thursday generally hotter than Wednesday.

Two people died during the monsoon rains last week.

A 67-year-old woman who went missing on Tuesday night in Hampyeong County, South Jeolla, amid a downpour was found dead Thursday morning.

The woman, identified by local firefighters as a water facility maintenance worker, went missing at around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday after leaving her home that night to open the floodgates at a small farming village.

Two days later, the woman was discovered on a pump station support beam in the same village, about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away from where she went missing.

In Yeongju, North Gyeongsang, a landslide caused a house to collapse, resulting in the death of a 14-month-old baby.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]