A Study on the Climatic Type in Korea by the Characteristics of Temperature Distribution
The climate of a given region is determined by the combination of the various climatic elements. But among them, the temperature is the most important element to classify the climatic type. The author attempted to classify the climatic types in Korea by making a analysis of the characteristics of temperature distribution. To accomplish the study, the author analyzed the daily and yearly range of temperature, the warmest and coldest months, continentality and oceanicity, thermal anomaly, and relative temperature, etc. The data of 153 weather stations are used for the analysis of the above five criteria. As a result of the study, the climate of Korea can be divided into three types, namely, the continental, coastal and intermediate(or transitional) type. The Pronounced continental type is appeared in the northern part of highland area. And the coastal type is limited to the east and south coast areas, and the southern part of the west coast area. The continentality is larger, and the oceanicity smaller, than those of Siberia, Mongolia and the inland area of China where the continental climate is most remarkable in the world. The reason why the west coast area is more continental than the east coast area may be due to the terrain effect and the warm current going north along the east coastline.