REGION AND GEOGRAPHY ISSN:2586-1468(Online) 지역과 지리

Despite recent efforts to study the climate characteristics of Dokdo based on four to five years of meteorological data, the island’s climate remains poorly understood due to a lack of reliable measurements. Consequently, it is often assumed to be nearly identical to that of Ulleungdo, the nearest island to Dokdo, leading to widespread misinformation among the government reports, institutional publications, and textbooks. Therefore, this study aims to examine the island’s climate by focusing on annual changes in mean temperature and precipitation using a 13-year-long dataset from 2010 to 2022. The findings show that the annual mean temperature is 13.9°C, the annual precipitation is 519.2 mm, and the average number of precipitation days is 93.7 per year. These results suggest that the climate of Dokdo is less wet than it was previously assumed, and differs notably from the climate of Ulleungdo. However, this does not imply semi-dry conditions, as water vapor and fog, influenced by the ocean, could help moisture condense or linger on the surface of land and vegetation in a maritime climate, especially given the relatively low summer temperatures. While the 13-year record may still be insufficient for a comprehensive understanding of the island’s climate, this study still provides a better understanding of the island’s climate characteristics and helps correct the misinformation about it.