Although some found this alarming, meteorologists say it is a normal phenomenon caused by dust blown up into the atmosphere. Strong southern winds known as Lodos have brought both rain and dirt to İstanbul, creating a mud shower.“City residents can see some mud on their cars. This is completely normal,” said State Meteorology Directorate İstanbul Regional Director Mustafa Yıldırım, He also complained that newspapers liked to publish stories with headlines such as “Mud rains on İstanbul” after every Lodos. Yıldırım said intermittent heavy showers were expected until the end of the week.
In fact, the phenomenon is not at all uncommon in Turkey. In May of last year, most of the country saw muddy water fall from the sky. The cities that witnessed mud rains included Kars, Erzincan, Van, Gümüşhane, Malatya, Gaziantep, Artvin, Ağrı, Bitlis, Ardahan and Elazığ.
Meteorology experts issued warnings yesterday, saying the heavy showers would continue in Marmara, the Aegean and the Mediterranean regions. However, temperatures are expected to rise by 2 to 4 degrees and remain slightly above seasonal norms.
According to forecasts from the State Meteorology Directorate yesterday, rain will cover much of the country this week and will be particularly heavy in Edirne, Çanakkale, İzmir, Muğla, Aydın, Manisa, Antalya, Isparta, Burdur and some districts of Balıkesir.
Strong winds of 40 to 60 kilometers per hour will blow in the southern and central parts of the country. Meteorologists also warned fishermen in Muğla’s Marmaris district of a storm with wind gusts as high as 80 kilometers an hour, telling them not to go out to the open sea yesterday. However, there were no reports of boat accidents in the area.
