September is the best month in Seoul

While living in Seoul, I often miss the weather in my hometown of Monterey Park (a suburb about 10 minutes east of downtown Los Angeles, California). The sun always shines (hence the drought problems Southern California has), winters are mild, and summers are very hot but dry. The four seasons are categorized as: very hot, warm, mild, and cool. This is no joke!

Seoul on the other hand is very different from Los Angeles and very similar to New York (although New York City has major extremes). Spring is fairly nice in Seoul, but it's too short. It lasts three weeks at most and some of those days are tainted with fine dust that either come from the Gobi Desert in China or coal refineries in Seoul.

Depending on where you're from, Winter can either be very mild for you in Seoul or it can be treacherous for people that come from warm weather climates such as myself. I find the wind to be bone chilling. My co-worker from Scotland finds it to be a lot nicer than in his home country. Canadians from Toronto or Winnipeg find Seoul winters a breeze, while Canadians from Vancouver have a hard time dealing with the cold.

Summer used to have 15-20 days of rain in July and humidity throughout. Three years ago, there was a pretty big flood in Gangnam. However, the last two summers have had little rain but still a lot of humidity. Apparently this summer was the hottest summer in Seoul on record. There were many days when the average temperature was 33 degrees:

South Korea hit by abnormal heat wave

Koreans flocked to the movie theaters to escape the heat, because it was so intense:

Summer-time heat, blockbusters behind record number of moviegoers

I don't usually complain about the heat. Yet this summer had two months of constant humidity that it drove me crazy. I would have enjoyed being in Arizona last month and baked rather than sizzled with sweat!

But then it brings us to September in Seoul. This is by far the best month of the year to be in Seoul. Seoul Grand Park is very green and lush, the skies are sky blue and clear, and the temperature is perfect. Not every day in Seoul is like this but you'll get at least 10-15 nice days that are absolutely postcard worthy, which I'm definitely thankful for. You can get to Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon on Line 4 (light blue line). My wife and I went there during the week between my morning and evening shifts last week and I got pictures like these:

And you know what they say right? A picture's worth a thousand words. Get here before it gets too cold in winter! You can get some nice shots of Gwacheon as you take the gondola to the entrance of the park. Enjoy the best month in Seoul the best way you can. Other suggestions to spend your September outside include: by the Han River at 8:00pm on a weekend watching the Banpo Bridge fountains, N Seoul Tower, strolling through Bukchon Village, drinking at a cafe in Samcheongdong, and taking pictures at Changdeok Palace (especially the Secret Garden located in the palace).

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy