• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.23-36
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• 2015

The temperature change patterns of climatic solar terms and their climatic fitness were analyzed. Harmonic analysis based on thirty-year(1981-2010) time-series data from sixty one weather stations across South Korea showed that the central peaks of the extreme heat had shifted toward start of autumn with increasing mean temperature. The overall climatic fitness of solar terms, such as major heat, frost descent, major snow, and major cold, was low, and it showed significant regional variations. The actual meteorological phenomenon representing each climatic solar term was observed much later than the day of the solar term at most weather stations. The number of observations, where an actual meteorological condition for each climatic solar term was recorded within ${\pm}1$ week from the day of that solar term, ranged only from 7.7% to 40.4% of the entire data. Study results also showed that the climatic fitness of major heat, frost descent, and major snow gradually changed in the east-west direction. Major cold, a solar term with higher climatic fitness, was influenced more strongly by latitude than longitude. Considering geographically uneven magnitude and trends in temperature changes, rearrangement and adjustment of time intervals between the solar terms may help us improve their applicability as realistic indicators of seasonal changes.