'Most severe cold wave in decades' expected in Turkey this week

İstanbul, March 1987 (Photo: Hava Forum)

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Turkey will experience the "most severe cold wave" in the last 35 years starting from Thursday (March 10), according to the State Meteorological Service (MGM).

"Starting from the northwest on Thursday, temperatures will decrease with the system coming over the Black Sea," the MGM said in a statement yesterday (March 7), adding that there will be snowfall all over the county except the Mediterranean coast and the south of the Southeastern Anatolia Region.

In İstanbul, the most populous city of the country, the snowfall will start on Wednesday night and is expected to continue until Monday.

The governor of İstanbul, Ali Yerlikaya, called on the city's residents to be "cautious and careful" while not giving information about what measures the governor's office had taken.

During the cold wave and snowfall of 1987, which the MGM referred to, snow depth exceeded 70 centimeters in İstanbul, according to the Kandilli Observatory of Boğaziçi University. On March 7, the temperature was recorded as minus 6.6 Celsius degrees.

According to state broadcaster TRT, snow depth was 86 centimeters in the Atatürk Airport in the Bakırköy district. It reached four meters in higher parts of the city.

The snowstorm ended on March 14, but it took about a month to clear the roads and melting snow caused floods, according to TRT reports.

Heavy snowfall in İstanbul in late January caused most of the main roads, including the Trans European Motorway, as well as the İstanbul Airport, to be closed, leaving thousands of people stranded. (AEK/VK)