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Farmers across South Korea are counting the cost of an unprecedented summer heatwave that has destroyed crops, killed livestock and pushed temperatures to record levels, as extreme weather sweeps across East Asia.
In Yanggu county, about 130km northeast of Seoul, farmer Lee Sang-hyuk recently dug into his potato field only to find much of the crop soft and rotting.
The potatoes had appeared healthy just a week earlier but were now collapsing under the intense heat, which had turned the soil into an oven.
“It’s not just one or two fields like this,” Lee told local broadcaster SBS, describing the damage as devastating.
His losses are part of a wider wave of extreme heat affecting South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and other parts of East Asia.
On August 2, the southeastern city of Yangsan recorded 42.5°C, the highest temperature recorded in South Korea since modern observations began in 1904.
The heat has been blamed for at least 31 deaths across the country, according to South Korea’s disease control agency.
More than 900,000 livestock and 1.4 million farmed fish have also died.
Authorities issued heat warnings and urged people to immediately stop outdoor activities, while President Lee Jae Myung told his cabinet that the extreme weather was unlike anything the country had experienced before.
Lee said the government needed to fundamentally overhaul its national crisis response system as extreme weather appeared to be becoming the “new normal”.
Japan has also endured temperatures of 40°C or higher in several locations, according to a report by the Guardian.
The country recorded its first-ever “kokushobi”, or “cruelly hot day”, a term introduced this year by Japan’s weather agency for temperatures exceeding 40°C.
In Tokyo, three lions at a zoo died from suspected heatstroke during the heatwave.
Scientists say the extreme conditions are part of a broader climate pattern.
Researchers at Japan’s Weather Attribution Centre found that the intensity of the country’s July heat would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused global warming.
They estimated that a heatwave of such magnitude would occur only once every 10,000 years in a world without human-driven warming.
The heatwave occurred despite an El Niño event, a natural climate pattern that has historically been associated with a lower likelihood of extreme summer heat in Japan.
Hong Kong also recorded its highest temperature since records began in 1884, with the observatory registering 36.9°C as the outer bands of Typhoon Dolphin pushed hot air over the city.
The extreme heat has also raised questions about Hong Kong’s warning system for outdoor workers.
The system remained at its lowest level even as temperatures reached a record high.
Former Hong Kong Observatory chief Lam Chiu Ying criticised the threshold for the highest-level warning as too high, while the Labour Department said it was reviewing the system with the observatory.
Extreme temperatures have also hit agriculture across the region.
In China’s western Xinjiang region, a weather station recorded 50°C in July, while heatwaves affected parts of the country’s northeast.
North Korea, meanwhile, reported a series of tropical nights in Pyongyang, with temperatures remaining above 25°C overnight.
In South Korea, the damage to crops has been particularly severe.
About 257km south of Seoul in Gwangju, watermelon farmer Hong Kyung-hee watched fruit that would normally command premium prices deteriorate within days.
He said the watermelons had been healthy and sweet before suddenly turning soft.
“In my 50 years of farming, this is the first time,” he told KBS.
Strawberry farmer Yoon Woo-ha in Damyang county, South Jeolla province, also lost seedlings she had spent three months cultivating. Her losses will not be covered by insurance.
South Korea’s agricultural insurance programme covers only certain crops, cultivation methods and regions, leaving some farmers without protection when extreme weather causes losses outside those categories.
Lee Jun-kyung, head of the Gwangju chapter of the Korean Peasants League, warned that uninsured losses could push farming families further into debt.
Climate scientist June-Yi Lee of Pusan National University said the regional heatwave was likely influenced by a combination of atmospheric circulation patterns and a warming climate.
A strengthening area of high pressure over the Tibetan Plateau and western Pacific, combined with this year’s El Niño conditions, may have contributed to the extreme temperatures, she said.
The World Meteorological Organisation has warned that Asia is warming at an accelerating rate.
Its latest State of the Climate in Asia report said the region warmed between 1991 and 2025 at roughly twice the rate recorded during the previous three decades.
Scientists warn that heatwaves are likely to become more frequent and intense as global temperatures rise, while compound weather events — such as successive heatwaves followed by heavy rainfall — are also becoming more common.
June-Yi Lee called for rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions alongside stronger measures to help communities adapt to the climate change already taking place.
