• Atmosphere
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.463-470
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• 2007

This study aims to assess the impact of the hot summer weather on daily mortality in Busan. Daily total all-caused mortality in the entire population in Busan has been examined during 1991-2005. The daily deaths were standardized to account for the long-term trend in mortality and their seasonal and weekly cycles. We found the net increase (about 8.2%) of excess deaths during the extraordinary heat wave period in July of 1994. It corresponds to the excess deaths of 109.5 during the month. The abnormality of temperature extremes in July of 1994 and their impacts on human health were also investigated. Unusual heat wave appeared in the first ten days in July of 1994. The excess deaths are likely to be attributable to the record-breaking heat waves. The result suggests that unusual early heat waves would be dangerous, even for inhabitants who live in an acclimated region to the heat waves such as Busan.

• Atmosphere
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.269-278
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• 2006

Extremely hot weathers may cause major weather-related deaths in the summertime. Influences of heat waves on daily mortalities in 6 major cities of South Korea were investigated. Daily deaths at Seoul were exponentially increased with the daily maximum temperature. However, there were regional differences of the temperature dependence on the mortality because of an acclimation effect of inhabitants. The threshold temperature (with respect to daily maximum temperature) at Seoul was found to be about $31^{\circ}C$ provided that it is determined by a two-phase regression model. The meteorological causes of recordable hot summer in late July of 1994 and their impacts on human health were also investigated. Strong surface heating caused by strong insolation under conditions with clear sky and dry surface due to prolonged drought was likely to be closely associated with the extreme hot weather in 1994 in South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2006

Regardless of the recent observed warmer winters in Korea, more freeze injuries and associated economic losses are reported in fruit industry than ever before. Existing freeze-frost forecasting systems employ only daily minimum temperature for judging the potential damage on dormant flowering buds but cannot accommodate potential biological responses such as short-term acclimation of plants to severe weather episodes as well as annual variation in climate. We introduce 'dormancy depth', in addition to daily minimum temperature, as a complementary criterion for judging the potential damage of freezing temperatures on dormant flowering buds of grape vines. Dormancy depth can be estimated by a phonology model driven by daily maximum and minimum temperature and is expected to make a reasonable proxy for physiological tolerance of buds to low temperature. Dormancy depth at a selected site was estimated for a climatological normal year by this model, and we found a close similarity in time course change pattern between the estimated dormancy depth and the known cold tolerance of fruit trees. Inter-annual and spatial variation in dormancy depth were identified by this method, showing the feasibility of using dormancy depth as a proxy indicator for tolerance to low temperature during the winter season. The model was applied to 10 vineyards which were recently damaged by a cold spell, and a temperature-dormancy depth-freeze injury relationship was formulated into an exponential-saturation model which can be used for judging freeze risk under a given set of temperature and dormancy depth. Based on this model and the expected lowest temperature with a 10-year recurrence interval, a freeze risk probability map was produced for Hwaseong County, Korea. The results seemed to explain why the vineyards in the warmer part of Hwaseong County have been hit by more freeBe damage than those in the cooler part of the county. A dormancy depth-minimum temperature dual engine freeze warning system was designed for vineyards in major production counties in Korea by combining the site-specific dormancy depth and minimum temperature forecasts with the freeze risk model. In this system, daily accumulation of thermal time since last fall leads to the dormancy state (depth) for today. The regional minimum temperature forecast for tomorrow by the Korea Meteorological Administration is converted to the site specific forecast at a 30m resolution. These data are input to the freeze risk model and the percent damage probability is calculated for each grid cell and mapped for the entire county. Similar approaches may be used to develop freeze warning systems for other deciduous fruit trees.