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Some parts of South Korea experienced torrential rain on Thursday. According to the country's weather agency, there has been the most hourly rainfall in one area since full records began in 1904.
South Korea usually receives monsoon rains in July, but three areas in the country's southern Chungcheong province experienced the heaviest rainfall on record this week, according to official weather data.
"The western Sioux Falls region experienced a record rainfall of 114.9 millimeters (4.5 inches) per hour, a level typically seen only once in 100 years," a weather agency official said, adding that it was the highest rate since 1904.
According to the official, the heavy rain was caused by warm and moist air flowing along the edge of a North Pacific high pressure system, which has caused strong atmospheric instability. South Korean broadcasters have shown various videos of water swamping markets and apartment complexes, as well as parked cars, in Seosan.
Residents of Hongseong County in South Chungcheong Province were ordered to "immediately evacuate" on Thursday morning due to flooding in a nearby river. Many schools and nurseries in the county were also closed. A driver died after a 10-meter-high (33-foot) retaining wall fell from an overpass onto the road in the city of Osan, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the capital Seoul.
Two people were rescued after a landslide in Chungcheong province. South Korea is regularly hit by floods during the summer monsoon but is generally well prepared and the death toll is generally relatively low.
According to scientists, climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and frequent. South Korea also experienced record rainfall and flooding in 2022. At least 11 people died in the flood.
Three of them were trapped and died in a basement apartment in Seoul. The apartment became internationally famous thanks to the Oscar-winning Korean film Parasite. Blaming climate change for the extreme weather, the government said Seoul's rainfall was the heaviest since records began.
