Weather hazards

Heavy rain and hail hit some districts of Istanbul's Asian side, particularly Çekmeköy and Sultanbeyli.

Residents of those affected areas covered their vehicles with carpets and blankets to protect them from the hailstones.

Motorists in Çekmeköy had to take cover under a bridge to wait for the heavy rain and hail which lasted for some one hour with intervals.

Thursday before noon will be partly sunny. In the afternoon, cumulus and rainy clouds will develop and in many places in the western half of the country there will be short-term, temporarily intense rainfall.

 In Northwestern Bulgaria there will be thunderstorms and hail conditions. A light wind will blow from the south-southwest, before noon in Eastern Bulgaria - from the southeast.

The National Weather Administration (ANM) has issued a Code Yellow warning for unstable weather valid through Thursday morning in six western counties. According to meteorologists, May 12, 16:00hrs - May 13, 10:00hrs, in Banat, Crisana, as well as the southwest of Oltenia, there will be spells unstable weather in the form thunderstorms, hail and torrential rain showers.

Istanbul's weather will dramatically change and residents will have to brave scorching heat in the summers, an Istanbul Technical University academic has warned.

"Istanbul will become very hot in the summers, making it unbearably hot for citizens, and floods will occur," Sevinç Asilhan told Demirören News Agency on April 22.

Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms are forecast

The National Meteorological Administration (ANM) on Wednesday issued a series of Code Yellow and Code Orange alerts of snowfall and blizzard in the mountainous and sub-mountainous areas, respectively a bad weather information targeting the entire country, which will take effect on Thursday morning.

Turkey's eastern and western regions have been hit by adverse weather conditions, with experts warning for the possibility for weather disturbances to continue.

Today it will be cloudy, windy and rainy, in the northwest snow will fall. Moderate to strong east-northeastern wind in the afternoon will blow from the northwest, in eastern Bulgaria from the north-northeast, and with it will sweep in cold air. By evening in many places in northern Bulgaria and in the higher regions of western Bulgaria, the rain will turn into snow. A snow cover will form.

Dust clouds blowing from Europe will cover Turkey's sky until the next week, a Turkish academic has said.

An Istanbul-based meteorologist, Hüseyin Toros, told state-run Anadolu Agency that desert dust storms that hit Europe and have been active throughout the week are now heading toward Turkey starting from today.

Today the clouds over most of the country will be significant. In places in the Danube plain and the Upper Thracian lowland, visibility will be reduced. It will be mostly sunny before noon over Southwestern Bulgaria, and during the day the clouds over the northeastern regions will break.