As I write (early morning, April 21st), the temperature here is listed as 2 Celsius [36 F]. It also says “Feels Like: 0 C“.
No, spring has still not really arrived in force. I don’t understand it. The typical day here has been in the 0-10 Celsius range (30s-40s Fahrenheit) through April so far. [It should be in the 10-20 Celsius range by now].
- The nightly-low in Bucheon has stayed below 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) all but twice so far this year.
- The daily-high has stayed below 15 Celsius (60 Fahrenheit) all but six times so far this year.
In March of 2012, I remarked to a coworker from England that the weather should be improving a lot soon. “Right, those will be two very pleasant two weeks, won’t they” was the (gist of) the sarcastic retort I heard back. The oppressive cold of Korean winter gives way to the annoying heat of Korean summer too quickly, was the point. This year, it seems that this “two week” quip may well come true. Why? I have no idea.
A Korean folk tale has it that Winter is jealous of humans’ love of Spring, so it angrily throws one last burst of cold weather at us humans before Spring takes over. I heard this on the only non-military English radio station here.
Koreans even have a special term for sudden spring cold-snaps (κ½μμΆμ). This one is prolonged, though.