Heat, rain records broken in 2021 in Turkey

ISTANBUL

Turkey broke its own heat and precipitation records in 2021, with thermometers hitting as high as 49.1 degrees Celsius in July and floods in the summer, an expert has said.

Deniz Demirhan, an academic from Istanbul Technical University who has analyzed the official 2021 data of the State Meteorological Service, said November was the warmed month in the past half-century.

“November 2021 was the warmest month in the last 50 years,” she said. “The Cizre district of the southeastern province of Şırnak reached the highest temperature with 49.1 degrees Celsius in July 2021.”

According to the academic, 2021 was generally a year of “high heat” due to the climate crisis.

“When you evaluate the year month by month, you see that Turkey has different new things it witnessed each month,” Demirhan said.

“In the summer of 2021, temperature was beyond the seasonal norms across the country. June 2021 was the 16th, July 2021 was the second and August 2021 was the sixth warmest month over the past 50 years,” she warned and stressed specially on the southern province of Adana.

“Adana saw a daily temperature of 32.1 degrees Celsius in November 2021,” she added.

January and November were the two months in 2021 when the country faced the highest precipitation.

“The rainfalls caused floods in the Black Sea provinces in the summer of 2021,” she recalled.

Demirhan made a stark warning that authorities must take action to avoid re-living future years like 2021 again.