March 3 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea had its warmest winter in more than 100 years because of the effects of the El Nino weather pattern and global warming, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

The average nationwide temperature for December, January and February was 2.46 degrees Celsius, the warmest since South Korea began recording the weather in 1904, the agency said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The average temperature for those months between 1971 and 2000 was 0.43 degrees Celsius, the agency said.

The average temperature in the capital of Seoul was 1.87 degrees Celsius, the warmest since 1907, the agency said. Seoul's average winter temperature between 1971 and 2000 was minus 0.87 degrees Celsius.

``The number of days when the temperature fell below minus 10 degrees Celsius in Seoul is continuing to fall and only totaled two days this winter,'' the statement said. ``The number of days when the minimum temperature was above zero degrees was 34 this winter, compared with an average of 16 days'' between 1971 and 2000.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meeyoung Song in Seoul at msong2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 2, 2007 22:18 EST