Turkey weather is largely temperate, although the small part of the country – ie Turkish Thrace- that borders with Greece and Bulgaria shares similar weather patterns with its two neighboring countries.
Generally speaking in the narrow coastlands and mountain slopes facing the Black Sea on the north, the Aegean on the west, and the Mediterranean on the south, winter conditions are wetter and milder in comparison to those Turkey’s interior experiences. In the latter part of Turkey, rainfall is rather sparse and the winters range between cold and extremely cold, its eastern side sharing almost identical conditions with those of the Russian Federation. Snow fall is abundant and provides most of the area’s precipitation. The landscape in the eastern part of the region is covered in snow for anything between three to four months. In sharp contrast, summers are warm and even hot, the fine weather often punctuated by thunderstorms.
Snow is a very rare occurrence and the winters are significantly milder along Turkey’s coastal regions, although the south and west coasts tend to be slightly hotter in winter in comparison to Turkish Thrace, around Istanbul and the Black Sea coast. Rainfall is a permanent fixture of Turkish weather in the Black Sea coast, becoming particularly heavy during summer and autumn in the area east of Samsun.
Summers are dry and hot and weather retains a typical Mediterranean disposition in the areas south of Istanbul the Aegean and the Mediterranean coasts, with winter being the wettest time of the year. Along the border with Syria the low-lying plain at the foot of the Taurus Mountains experiences Turkey’s hottest and driest conditions that often become similar in characteristics with those associated with the Middle East. Rain in the area occurs only in winter and the climate is classified as semi-arid steppe. Except for the eastern part of the Black Sea coastlands, the suns lingers over Turkey even during the winter season; average daily sunshine amounts range from three to four hours in midwinter to as much as twelve to thirteen hours in summer. Thanks to the combination of the low humidity of never reaches severe proportions. However, around the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts nights occasionally become humid and sticky.
