Korea is apparently already under the influence of global warming as flowers are blooming earlier than ever, a state-run institute said Thursday.

At the same time Fall leaves are coming later, indicating that the climate here is getting warmer and milder, said Lee Kyeong-mi, staff worker at the National Institute of Meteorological Research. 

Lee found that the flowering of Japanese apricot plants has come forward 4.1 days in the past decade, which suggests that spring is arriving on the Korean Peninsula increasingly early.

The blossoming of forsythia, azalea, cherry blossom, peach tree and pear tree have come forward one day, 1.8 days, 2.1 days, 1.6 days and 2.1 days, respectively, in the cited period.

“The blossoming of Japanese apricots, in particular, hadn’t shown any change of time until the 1980s. But since the 1980s, it has advanced by 14 days, which is alarming,” Lee said.

“The rise of temperature ― the monthly increase by 0.54 degrees Celsius in February and 0.39 degrees in March for the past 10 years ― has contributed to the advancement,” she said.

The period of gingko blossoming went back 3.7 days between 1989 and 2007. A similar pattern was detected for maple foliage, which has been delayed by 4.1 days during the same period.

“The blossoming period of plants is a barometer and indicator of global warming and other climate change factors,” Lee said.

This is not the first time climate change has been seen to be affecting Korea, and some experts have claimed that Korea might become a subtropical zone.

The National Institute of Environmental Research said last year that the average temperature of the Korean Peninsula between 1991 and 2000 marked 13.5 degrees, about 1.5 degrees up from 12 degrees recorded between 1912 and 1990. The pace of the rise was about 2.5 times faster than the global average, the institute said.

The Korea Forest Research Institute last year found two species of subtropical plants on the southern island of Jeju.

“The discovery shows that Korea has already stepped into the hot and humid zone,” said Kim Chan-soo, who headed the research.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)