Tornadoes in Turkey

Generally being considered as exceptional weather events, tornado occurences are not yet scientifically documented in Turkey. This is the first study as a climatology of tornadoes in the country. The dataset is constructed mainly from news reports, eyewitnesses, government sources and European Severe Weather Database. Waterspouts are included in the dataset.

According to the collected records, a total of 306 known tornado cases exist between 1936 and 2012 in Turkey, most of them occuring in the last decade. Approximately one sixth of the tornadoes are F2 or stronger. The most tornadic region appears to be southern coasts, of which data mainly dominated by late morning waterspouts. Besides, northern Eagean region as well as mountainous eastern Anatolia experience tornadoes rather frequently compared to other regions, plus with more severity. Most of these stronger tornadoes occur between afternoon and evening hours. Annual distribution indicates that May and June are the months with maximum number of tornado cases. Autumn months as well as February also show a peak, essentially because of waterspouts over Mediterranean coast.