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The Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters said 66 ambulances were dispatched to help people who collapsed from the heat from June to this month, and 60 cases required treatment at hospitals. Emergency ambulances were dispatched for cases of dizziness, fainting or seizures.“The ground is continuously heated from the lack of rain and the steady inflow of hot air from the region southwest of the peninsula,” explained Shin Gi-chang at the Korea Meteorological Administration. The KMA issued heat warnings yesterday for 130 regions nationwide. The only regions that are relatively cool are those located in mountainous terrain or coastal areas.

The KMA said the heat wave started in the latter half of July, with average temperatures 0.8 degrees Celsius higher than temperatures during the same period last year. Tropical-type nights are happening more often than in the past, and Seoul has experienced eight this summer. Over the past decade, there was an average of 8.3 tropical-type nights per summer in the city. Other cities are experiencing the same phenomenon.

The National Institute of Environmental Research recently reported that when the average temperature in seven major cities rose from 27 degrees Celsius to 28, the overall number of deaths increased 2 percent, which comes to an additional 10 deaths a day. They based their conclusion on summer records from 1991 to 2007.

“When average temperatures rise above 26 degrees in the summer,” said Yu Seung-do of the institute, “elderly citizens and children should stay inside and pay more attention to their health.”The weather is expected to cool down slightly as showers are expected on the peninsula this afternoon, said Shin. “But the heat is here to stay at least until early September.”