Antalya bore highest daily rainfall recorded: Report

ANTALYA

The Turkish State Meteorological Service has elaborated on the highest and least precipitation events the country has witnessed over the years in its recent report, with the southern province of Antalya's Kemer district receiving the highest rain ever experienced in the last 98 years in 2018.

The bureau’s report mainly covered the period from 1970 to 2023 with the data before 1970 only considered for extreme values. The decision to use 1970 as the base year was due to the limited number of measuring stations before that period, which increased to 224 afterwards.

While the wettest year was revealed to be 2009, recording 793.8 kilograms per square meter of rainfall, the least rainy year was 2008, with only 493.1 kilograms. Over the last five decades, the average annual precipitation stood at 619 kilograms per square meter.

The highest amount of rainfall recorded in a single day was in Kemer district’s Ovacık area measuring a staggering 491.5 kilograms per square meter on Dec. 17, 2018. The extreme weather event on the day caused significant flooding which necessitated the evacuation of over 10 households. Agricultural lands were also adversely affected by the deluge.

Coming in at second place, Kaleboynu village in Andıran district of Kahramanmaraş experienced 488.2 kilograms of rain on March 27, 2021, followed by Boğazören village in Beytüşşebap district of Şırnak, where 481.4 kilograms of rainfall were recorded on Jan. 22, 2019.

In addition to the December, March and January records in Kemer, Andıran, and Beytüşşebap districts respectively, other notable daily rainfall extremes by the month were recorded across various regions.

In Kayseri’s İncesu district, Feb. 27, 2014, saw a significant rainfall of 449.1 kilograms, setting the month’s record. Bergama district of İzmir witnessed a notable rainfall on April 30, 2012, totaling 423.4 kilograms, the highest for April.

Antakya district of Hatay encountered heavy rainfall of 432.1 kilograms on May 9, 2001. Kavşut village in Göksun district of Kahramanmaraş experienced noteworthy rainfall on June 10, 2019, reaching 227.1 kilograms.

Çayeli district of Rize recorded a substantial downpour of 272.8 kilograms of rainfall on July 14, 2020. Zonguldak marked the highest rainfall of August in 1955 with 431.5 kilograms.

September’s record was broken in 1968, with 374.6 kilograms recorded in Dalaman, Muğla. Kayseri claimed the record for October in 2017 with 367.5 kilograms, while Yalova’s Çiftlikköy saw 319.1 kilograms in Nov. 2016.