◀ reporter ▶
This is the entrance to the Ice Valley in Miryang, Gyeongnam.
It is famous as a mysterious place with ice even in midsummer, right?
But these days, it is said that the ice disappears in June, the threshold of summer.
The reason for the ice-free ice valley was covered.
The area around Ice Valley is a tattered area.
It is an area where rocks that have been broken down by weathering have fallen and piled up.
It is presumed that the ice is frozen in summer as cold air accumulates in the crevices inside the rock pile during the winter and escapes when the weather gets warmer.
However, there is a sign on the ticket counter saying that there is no ice.
“(Is there a specific time to paste this? Is it this guide?) Put it on when the ice is gone.”
It was a hot and humid day with a maximum temperature of 29.5 degrees and a maximum humidity of 89%, but the road to Ice Valley was cool.
“I never dreamed that frost would get on my glasses even in midsummer.”
It feels like you are in a refrigerator, but there is no ice in the ice sheet.
After the end of winter, the icicle-like ice formed in March of this year gradually disappeared from mid-April and became difficult to see in June.
Because of its mysterious terrain, this ice valley was also designated as a natural monument in 1970.
If you look at the description of the Natural Monument, Ice Valley, it is said that July and August have the most ice, and ‘because it is’, that is, the ice begins to melt around the time autumn comes.
Let’s take a picture by attaching the camera to a long pole.
That white thing has a little bit of your ice. There is still ice. However, it is a bit difficult to check the ice from a position where the spectators can see it.
[안충환/경남 밀양시]
“When I was young, we had picnics and so on. (Do you remember that time? How many ice cubes were there?) / I remember that it was not only here but also in places like this. It’s already been 50 or 60 years ago.”
A scholar who has studied ice valleys for a long time explained to reporters that when it is very cold in winter and there is a lot of snow, ice lasts longer in summer.
The average January temperature for 10 years since 1973, when the first meteorological observation was started in Miryang, was minus 0.6 degrees Celsius.
However, in the last 10 years, the image is 0.8 degrees, which is 1.4 degrees higher than this.
In the 1970s, it snowed for about three or four days in Miryang in winter, but there has been no snow in the last 10 years.
[이애경/밀양 문화관광해설사]
“I think winter is actually short even for us to feel. The cold. But as summer comes and gets longer, the ice melts faster (I think).”
In addition to Miryang, there are places where ice freezes in summer in Cheongsong and Uiseong, North Gyeongsang Province, and Danyang in North Chungcheong Province.
However, the ice here is also different from before.
[김필상/청송 얼음골 인근 주민]
“It’s very cold (in winter) and very hot in summer, and (ice) freezes a lot. The ice is a little weaker than then (30-40 years ago).”
Ice Valley, which has been a mystery for many years.
But climate change is making even that mystery disappear.
This is Kim Min-wook from MBC News.
Video coverage: Joo-Park Park/Video editing: Daye Ryu
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