The climate in Turkey

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

A beach holiday can be enjoyed in the warmer season with water temperatures up to 25 degrees. The warmest and rainiest part of the country is Southeast Anatolia. The coldest is Black Sea Region. Due to the warmer temperatures the best time for traveling is from June to September. Less attractive are the cold months from November to March.

Temperature records of the last 73 years

The hottest temperature measured from 1949 to March 2022 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 64 weather stations in Turkey below 1880 metres altitude, was recorded in 2010 with an average temperature of 25.3 °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 32.2 °C.

The coldest day in these 73 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 1992 with an average temperature of 0.7 °C. In Turkey, it is usual to have about 3.7 degrees more at 4.5 °C for this three-month period.

The most precipitation fell in July 2009. With 322.5 mm per day, the Izmir weather station recorded the highest monthly average of the last 73 years. Incidentally, the region with the most rainfall for the whole year is around Rize. The driest region is near Konya.

Long-term development of temperatures from 1949 - 2021

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 2021 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. January 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 14.5 °C in the last years before 2021. So in less than 73 years it has increased by about 2.0 °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.

Data basis and methodology

The data of the individual measuring stations are based on the archives of the German Weather Service, individual values averaged and supplemented by own elements. In order to determine a representative national average, average values were first calculated for each part of the country, which were then summarized at the national level. Thus, if a disproportionate number of weather stations are located in a small area, their number does not affect the national average. There are 64 stations in Turkey itself.In 15 cases, neighboring but nearby weather stations were also used to obtain more accurate values.