(LEAD) Heavy rain advisory lifted for some parts of Gyeonggi, Incheon regions

All News 14:50 August 15, 2020

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES lifting of heavy rain advisory throughout; ADDS heat wave alert in last 3 paras)

SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Yonhap) -- A heavy rain advisory has been lifted for some parts of Gyeonggi Province and Incheon amid a decrease in precipitation, South Korea's weather service said Saturday.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said as of 12:30 p.m. it has canceled previously issued warnings for 24 regions in Gyeonggi and the city of Suwon, as the amount of rain has decreased markedly. It said similar action has been taken for the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, as well as Gangwha Island and small islands of Ongjin County.

The agency, however, said weather advisories are in place in some regions in Gyeonggi, such as Anseong, 77 kilometers south of Seoul, and the cities of Incheon and Yeoju to the east of the capital.

The KMA also said the heavy rain alert for all of Seoul has been lifted, even though some neighborhoods received over 60 millimeters of rain earlier Saturday.

In Gangwon, advisories have been removed in some regions although strong winds and torrential rains are expected in the mountainous areas, with warnings still in place for Hoengseong, Pyeongchang and Wonju, it said.

The state weather forecaster and local authorities said that although rainfall is falling off, people need to be on guard for landslides, particularly in places such as Chungcheong Province that has reported upward of 250 billion won (US$210 million) in rain-related damage so far.

It urged people to watch out for sudden flooding and damages to crops and farmlands, as rain is expected to continue falling at least until Sunday.

Besides the rain, the weather service said it has placed all parts of the country outside of Seoul, Gyeonggi and the western parts of Gangwon, on a special heat wave watch, as temperatures have risen to as high as 35 C.

The ongoing monsoon rains, the longest in recent memory, are expected to dissipate this coming Sunday.

"Parts of North Gyeongsang Province and Jeju can expect temperatures as high as 35 C over the weekend, with other places likely to experience mercury levels rising to around 33 C," the KMA said.