According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, lightning struck 124,000 times last year, up 51% from the previous year.

[Financial News] Last year, 124,000 lightning strikes were observed in Korea. This is 51% more than in 2020 (83,000 times) and 8% more than the average of the past 10 years (116,000 times).

On the 31st, the Korea Meteorological Administration published the 2021 Lightning Annual Report containing information on lightning observed in Korea last year.

According to the annual report, the number of annual lightning strikes per unit area by metropolitan city and province was highest in that order, followed by Gyeongsangnam-do, Daegu Metropolitan City, and Jeollabuk-do.

The month with the most lightning strikes was August, with 45,596 lightning strikes (about 37%).

About 72% of annual lightning strikes were concentrated in summer (June to August). Summer lightning was concentrated in Jeolla-do and Gyeongsang-do.

The number of lightning strikes in June was lower than the 10-year average. May and August were above the 10-year average.

In particular, in May of last year, lightning was observed 22,606 times, which is nearly twice as many as the monthly average for the past 10 years (11,397 times). Cho Ik-hyeon, head of the radar analysis division at the Korea Meteorological Administration's Meteorological Radar Center, said, "Unusually, about 33% (7,388) of all lightning strikes in May were concentrated on May 28, when heavy rain accompanied by low pressure occurred."
The annual report is an analysis of data observed by the Korea Meteorological Administration's 21 lightning observation networks. It contains information such as △the number of lightning strikes per month by metropolitan city/province △by city/county/district △the number of times per unit area (㎢) △the spatial distribution of lightning strikes △the five major lightning cases. You can check it on the Korea Meteorological Administration website.

skjung@fnnews.com Reporter Jeong Sang-gyun