Though they left winter behind, sporadic snowfall still threatens to disrupt daily life in most provinces across Turkey. The Turkish State Meteorological Services (TSMS) warned on Thursday that 63 provinces were exposed to heavy snowfall, rain and strong winds. Also on Thursday, schools were shut down in five provinces including Afyon, Denizli and Isparta in the west, Sinop in the north, the central province of Konya, as well as a town in the otherwise warm Muğla in the southwest.
Snowfall also shut down several roads, including one connecting Konya to Afyon and Isparta where the traffic came to a halt due to blizzards. The western province of Burdur also saw two roads connecting it to Antalya and the capital Ankara shut down due to snowfall on Wednesday night.
According to a forecast by TSMS, snowfall, rainfall and cloudy weather will prevail in most regions of the country, while the majority of the country’s western and Mediterranean regions will be spared from bad weather. The country’s most populated city Istanbul, which was exposed to snowfall chaos in January, also had sporadic snowfall on higher ground but except for low temperatures, weather was otherwise not as wintry as it was in the past two months.
The TSMS also warned against avalanche risk in eastern Anatolia and higher ground in parts of the eastern Black Sea region, while it issued warning against storms in eastern parts of the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, along with eastern Anatolia, with winds expected to reach the speeds of 90 kph (55 mph).
Ankara was among the places subject to heavy snowfall throughout Wednesday night and the early hours of Thursday. The precipitation did not disrupt life much, but traffic snarls were reported in suburbs located on higher ground in the otherwise flat capital. Snowplows worked around the clock to keep the streets clear and poured salt on icy roads. The capital’s mayor, Mansur Yavaş, tweeted that they deployed 4,230 personnel to keep the roads clear. “You can go home or to work safely,” he tweeted to fellow residents of the capital. The city’s Esenboğa Airport did not postpone any flights but the snowfall and blizzard kept some passenger planes in the air before the runways are cleared of snow.
Antalya, on the other hand, was hit by a tornado, storms and heavy rainfall on Wednesday night. A tornado toppled the minaret of a mosque in the city's Serik district and damaged several houses. Greenhouses and residences were flooded in the Aksu district, while a tornado and storm damaged a school in the Alanya district and injured a student staying in a dormitory next to a school.
Emin Uygun, who works at the mosque whose minaret toppled, said the cylindrical structure fell on his house next to the mosque. "I was at home with my family and saw the ceiling violently shaken," he recalled to Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday. "I took my family and fled. I saw half of the minaret on my house and the other half on the ground," he said.
