Climate crisis becomes seasonal reality

[Anchor]

The climate crisis is no longer a warning for humanity but a disaster right before our eyes.

KBS has prepared a series of reports examining the realities and prospects of the climate crisis.

Last year, South Korea experienced unprecedented heavy snowfall, torrential rain, and the worst heatwave on record.

The climate crisis has become a reality, and reporter Kim Se-hyun reports.

[Report]

The CCTV footage shakes as if an earthquake has occurred.

The roof of a factory collapses.

Startled workers hurriedly escape the factory.

[Kang Young-jun / Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province: "It was so loud and there was such a vibration that it felt like an earthquake, and the building collapsed, which was quite terrifying."]

This was due to the more than 60cm of heavy snowfall that fell in southern Gyeonggi Province last November.

All nine of these livestock barns, measuring 80m in length, collapsed completely.

A month has passed since the heavy snowfall, but due to the cold weather, recovery efforts for the collapsed barns are not easy.

[Poultry farm owner / Anseong, Gyeonggi Province: "Everything inside is frozen because of the snow, so we can't even touch it... Who would have thought so much would come in November?"]

Since the beginning of this winter, the metropolitan area has been hit by record-breaking heavy snowfall.

In Suwon, an official measurement recorded 43cm of snow, the highest amount of November snow since records began, while unofficial records in Anseong showed up to 73cm of snow accumulation.

Without time to clear it, 410 cases of collapse damage occurred in Gyeonggi Province alone due to the accumulated snow.

[Kim In-seop / Anseong, Gyeonggi Province: "I've lived for nearly 60 years, and I've never seen so much snow. (In a normal year) it's rare to get even 15cm or 20cm."]

Last year's monsoon season also saw heavy rainfall.

Extreme rainfall exceeding 100mm per hour was recorded nine times, and an unprecedented downpour of 146mm per hour fell on Eocheongdo, Jeollabuk-do.

[Kim Seong-rae / then village chief of Eocheongdo: "It was an act of God, something I experienced for the first time in my seventy years of life."]

As the climate crisis becomes a reality, heavy rainfall and snowfall that used to occur once in a hundred years are increasingly becoming part of everyday life.

This is KBS News, Kim Se-hyun.