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| Hangyeryeong in Yangyang County, a mountainous region in Gangwon Province, is blanketed with heavy snow, Sunday. Courtesy of Yangyang County |
By Lee Hyo-jin
Heavy snowfall has blanketed the mountainous regions in Gangwon Province and the eastern coastline, Sunday, triggering the government to mobilize the emergency response system.
As of 3 p.m., mountainous regions in Gangwon Province, such as Misiryeong of Mount Seorak were piled under 57 centimeters of snow, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). Other regions in the province saw between five to 40 centimeters of snow, prompting the state weather agency to issue a snow advisory.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety issued a Level 1 emergency response for the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, putting it into emergency work mode in mountainous areas of Gangwon, while raising the alert level to "caution" from "attention."
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The authorities have ramped up efforts to prevent possible damage from the snow, but the heavy fall led to severe traffic disruptions on highways and about 20 car accidents. No major casualties were reported.
Gangwon Provincial Government has mobilized 450 vehicles and 620 workers to remove the snow. The central government said that the emergency response level may be raised to Level 2 depending on the situation, as the region is expected to see more snow of up to 50 centimeters until Monday.
According to the state weather agency, Northeast Gyeongsang Province was expected to see 10 to 30 centimeters of snow until Monday, while Seoul, western Gyeonggi Province and Incheon were predicted to see up to three centimeters.
The KMA called for extra caution concerning possible collapses of facilities due to the heavy weight of the wet snow.
"As it contains more water than dry snow, wet snow is about two to three times heavier than normal snow. Residents should be extra careful about the collapse of weak facilities or greenhouses," said a KMA official.
The precipitation will give way to freezing weather from Monday morning. Morning lows in Seoul will plummet to minus eight degrees Celsius and daytime highs will remain below zero.
The state weather agency planned to issue a cold wave advisory across Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province, as well as Gangwon Province, at 6 p.m. Sunday. A cold wave advisory is issued when the day's low temperature is expected to fall 10 degrees or more to less than three degrees, or when the morning lows are forecast to be lower than minus 12 degrees Celsius for two days or longer.
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