No snow expected on New Year’s Day, say meteorologists
ISTANBUL
As parts of Turkey have been experiencing snowfall, meteorologists are saying there will be no snow on New Year’s Day.
“It is hard to make an estimation for 10 days later. But with a 70 percent probability, we do not see snowfall on the last day of the year,” Orhan Şen, a prominent meteorologist, told daily Milliyet on Dec. 23.
According to the expert, apart from the three major cities, Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the western province of İzmir, most Central Anatolian provinces will not witness any snowfall or downpours.
He also predicted that Istanbul may enter the new year with heavy rainfall. “On Dec. 30 and 31, there will be rain in the Marmara region. Only in Uludağ [the highest mountain in the region at 2,543 meters], there can be snowfall,” he added.
Deniz Demirhan, a meteorologist from Istanbul Technical University, said the precipitations will be rainfalls rather than snowfalls.
“The temperatures in the country’s west, Central Anatolia and the Black Sea region will be 1 to 3 degrees Celsius higher than the seasonal norms between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2, 2022. The rest will be at seasonal norms,” she said.
“With a high probability, only the regions of Marmara, Aegean and the Mediterranean will witness strong precipitation in the week of the New Year’s.”
There was heavy snowfall in the Marmara region and Central Anatolian provinces, with downpours blocking hundreds of village roads in the country’s east on Dec. 23.
According to Şen, as of Dec. 24, the temperatures will start increasing and a warmer weather will replace the cold in the country’s west at the weekend.
