The climate in Turkey

Climate zone: The northern part of Turkey is located in the temperate climatic zone, while the southern part is subtropical.

The climate in Turkey widely corresponds to the German weather conditions. It is cold, wet and a few beautiful summer months are also happening. A beach holiday can be enjoyed in the warmer season with water temperatures up to 24 degrees. Due to the warmer temperatures the best time for traveling is from June to September. Nearly unattractive for tourists are the cold months from November to March.

› Duration of daylight and sunshine in Turkey

Temperature records of the last 70 years

The hottest temperature measured from 1949 to December 2019 was reported by the Finike weather station. In October 2010 the record temperature of 52.8 °C was reported here. The hottest summer from July to September, based on all 63 weather stations in Turkey below 1800 metres altitude, was recorded in 2010 with an average temperature of 25.4 °C. This average temperature will normally be measured every 4 to 6 hours, thus also including the nights. Normally, this value is 23.3 degrees Celsius. The average maximum daily temperature at that time was 32.3 °C.

The coldest day in these 70 years was reported by the weather station Erzurum. Here the temperature dropped to -36.0 °C in January 2009. Erzurum lies at an altitude of 1758 meters above sea level. The coldest winter (January to March) was in 1949 with an average temperature of 1.0 °C. In Turkey, it is usual to have about 3.6 degrees more at 4.5 °C for this three-month period.

Long-term development of temperatures from 1949 - 2019

In contrast to single record values, a long-term development cannot simply be brought about by all weather stations in the country. Both the number and the locations are constantly changing. A simply calculated average value would give a falsified result. If several measuring stations in particularly cold mountain or coastal regions are added in one year, the average would already decrease as a result of this alone. If a station fails during the summer or winter months, it does not provide any values and falsifies the average again. The subsequent long-term development was therefore reduced to only 8 measuring points in order to have actually comparable data over as long a period as possible.

In the years 1949 to 2019 there were only these 8 weather stations in the whole country, which reported continuous temperature values. From these weather reports we have created a long-term development that shows the monthly average temperatures. The hottest month in this entire period was August 2010 with 27.7 °C. Januar 1950 was the coldest month with an average temperature of -3.1 °C.

The average annual temperature was about 12.6 °C in the years after 1949 and about 14.2 °C in the last years before 2019. So in less than 71 years it has increased by about 1.6 °C. This trend only applies to the selected 8 weather stations in Turkey. A considerably more comprehensive evaluation of the global warming has been provided separately.




More detailed information on global warming with a view by continent can also be found on our topic page on climate change.