On Wednesday, meteorologists were forecasting a drop in temperatures of up to 10 degrees Celsius in western Turkey for today, with a new host of rain coming in from the Balkans and the Mediterranean Sea. Showers and thunderstorms are expected in Kırklareli and Tekirdağ this evening, with strong rains expected to prevail in İzmir, Muğla, Aydın and Manisa through tonight and tomorrow morning.
High winds are expected to come from the southwest and affect the Marmara, Aegean and western Black Sea regions today at speeds of 60-80 kilometers per hour. In western Turkey temperatures have continued to drop to levels between 6 and 10 degrees lower than the seasonal norm.
 Strong southwestern winds accompanied storming in western Turkey, uprooting trees that damaged several parked vehicles. Rainstorms are expected to continue as temperatures drop even further today and tomorrow. |
Inclement weather already took its toll on Tuesday, with 80 kilometer per hour winds accompanying stormy weather in Çanakkale, Gelibolu, Edirne, Tekirdağ, İzmir, Bursa and İstanbul. Ferries were delayed between Çanakkale and Gelibolu because of the winds, while trees were uprooted in Çanakkale, Edirne and Bursa, causing damage to parked cars. In Bursa it was even difficult to walk down the street, and at one vocational high school a massive tree was uprooted and fell in the middle of the physical education yard. Luckily, no students were on the field at the time so there were no injuries.
In Beşikçi village in Antalya’s Kumluca district, flooding resulted from heavy rains, with up to 50 greenhouses and 50 homes flooded and some vehicles carried out to sea. In Antalya’s Olimpos vacation area, a river overflowed due to the rains, causing flooding of some restaurants and bungalows and leading to the temporary closure of two sections of the Antalya-Kumluca highway. The Olimpos village head told the press that the flooding was the “disaster of the century” for the area, with vehicles washed away and roads, bridges and the electrical infrastructure all being damaged.
