Turkey is set to ring in 2016 with a new weather front that will bring dense snowfall across the country on both continents.Starting on Wednesday and reaching its peak on Thursday, heavy snowfall coming from the north will grip the entire country and particularly effect western cities, including Istanbul, as well as eastern Anatolia where a harsh winter has already set in.Forecasters say temperatures will start to drop gradually early Wednesday after two months with little precipitation in the west. The Marmara region where Istanbul and several industrial cities are located in the northwest will experience a cold front with occasional snowfall on Wednesday.Thursday will mark the onset of heavy snowfall over all of Turkey, continuing on Friday in terms of precipitation and temperatures, which are expected to drop as low as minus 1 degree Celsius all across Turkey except for cities with warm climates year-round in the southwest.Authorities warn that snowfall, especially in Istanbul, will affect daily life up until Saturday and strong winds with gusts up to 70 kilometers per hour will accompany the precipitation.The Istanbul Governorate urged drivers not to use their vehicles except in emergency situations and to put chains on their tires. It also warned citizens not to travel outdoors far from urban areas during the snowfall.The first snow of the year in Istanbul, a city of more than 17 million people, is usually associated with chaos as traffic, already worse than many big cities around the world, comes to a halt. Professor of meteorology, Orhan Şen, urges locals "not to repeat the scenes of chaos in the past years" and to use mass transit during the snowfall instead of their personal vehicles. "The first snow almost always means disaster for Istanbul. I hope authorities will take the necessary measures to prevent this," Şen told Anadolu Agency (AA). The Istanbul municipality announced on Monday that it would deploy snowplows and crews who will work around the clock to clear roads and mass transit lanes.