Weather tracker: Warm Yellow Sea strengthens storms in South Korea

More than 200mm of rain forecast in parts of South Korea, while parts of southern Europe to be 10C above average

South Korea’s prime minister, Han Seong-sook, met officials to prepare for heavy rain expected this week, with rainfall totals across central and northern parts of the country forecast to exceed 200mm in some areas.

South Korea was battered by heavy rainfall earlier this month and some areas were particularly hard hit. Over the weekend further thunderstorms pushed into the region and these are expected to cause disruption through Monday. This heavy rain is caused by a series of severe thunderstorms that developed over the Yellow Sea, on the western side of South Korea, and will slowly push eastwards on Monday before easing on Tuesday. These storms have been strengthened by the very warm Yellow Sea, which now has a surface temperature of 29C, 4C above the climatological average.

Thailand is also under a warning for heavy to very heavy rain as the country passes the middle of its monsoon season, which runs from May to October. In the Philippines, the province of Tarlac has been placed under a state of calamity due to prolonged heavy rain in August.

Nearby in the north Pacific, which has had an active typhoon and tropical storm season so far and will continue to do so this week, several tropical systems have the potential to develop. Last week, Typhoon Bang-lang and Tropical Storm Etau developed very close to each other in the north-west Pacific and both travelled northwards, although neither made landfall. Another two systems near the Philippines and China have a medium to high chance of developing into a tropical cyclone. For this to happen, wind speeds need to reach 39mph (63km/h). Across in the eastern north Pacific, Karina has developed into a category 1 hurricane and is expected to head just to the north of Hawaii but is not forecast to make landfall. Tropical Storm Lowell is expected to strengthen into a hurricane on Tuesday before passing just to the south of Hawaii.

As Europe reaches the end of its record-breaking meteorological summer, the hot weather is showing no signs of easing off for the start of September. The heat is expected to intensify again later this week across central and southern parts of Europe, with temperatures rising to 10C above the climatological average. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, temperatures could reach about 40C by the weekend, falling just shy of the country’s all-time temperature record of 43.1C, set in 2007.