▲ People walk beneath blooming cherry blossom trees in Seoul's Yeouido neighborhood on April 2, 2023. (Yonhap)

weather-cold snap

Unusually warm weather to give way to cold snap this weekend

SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- The unusually warm weather experienced this week will give way to a returning cold snap across the country during the weekend, weather officials said Thursday.

Morning lows will fall below zero in some inland areas from Friday to Sunday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

On Saturday, the entire country will experience a morning wind chill below freezing, it said.

Springtime wintry conditions usually occur in late March or early April in a phenomenon called "a cold snap envious of flowers."

The low-pressure system that brought rains earlier this week will exit to the east, and a cold continental high-pressure system from the north will approach the peninsula causing temperatures to drop and bringing strong winds, the agency said.

The KMA predicted morning lows of 2-10 C and daytime highs of 12-20 C for Friday. Morning lows on Saturday are expected to range from minus 2 C to 6 C, with daytime highs of 13-17 C.

This year's spring cold snap comes after the nation experienced the warmest March on record.

The average temperature during the last month was 9.4 C, the highest for March since the country began nationwide weather monitoring in 1973.

It was 3.3 degrees higher than the average of the baseline period from 1991 to 2020, and 0.7 degrees higher than the second-hottest March recorded in 2021.

From last Thursday to Tuesday, the average temperature across the country exceeded 20 C, making many people feel like it was early summer.

The expected chilly weather and strong winds this weekend are expected to bring an end to the peak bloom of cherry blossoms.

The first cherry blossom blooming in Seoul this spring was observed on March 25, the second earliest since the nation began to record related data in 1922.

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