South Korea will see 40 percent more heavy rains by the end of this century if it continues to increase greenhouse gas emissions at the current rate, a report showed Wednesday.

A constant growth in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide is expected to bring torrential rains of at least 80 millimeters per day on an average of 4.4 days each year after 2100, according to the report by the National Institute of Meteorological Research (NIMR) under the state weather agency.

That number is a 42-percent jump from the current average of 3.1 days.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to a level that will stabilize the rise in the gases‘ concentration level by 2100 will still bring 4.3 days of downpours per year on average, the report said.

At the current growth rate, extreme cases of heavy rain are also expected to become more frequent, bringing an average of 144 millimeters of rainfall across the country every 3.4 years rather than every 20 years as is currently the trend.

Even with the reduction in greenhouse gases, such rains will fall every 4.3 years after 2100, the report said.

“We are currently seeing in our country more frequent localized heavy rains as a larger amount of rain is spread across fewer days of rain,” said Cho Cheon-ho, the head of the climate research division at NIMR. “This can be explained by large climate fluctuations caused by the earth restoring its equilibrium in the face of the shock of greenhouse gases.” (Yonhap News)