Climate of Turkey
Turkey's climate is varied and generally temperate, with the regions bordering the Mediterranean and Black Sea heavily affected by the coasts, and the interior being drier and more continental.
Coastal areas in the southern half of the country, including Antalya, İzmir, Adana, feature a very typical Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters.
Coastal areas in the north are cooler and are either humid temperate or sub-Mediterranean, with cool, frequently rainy and occasionally snowy winters, and warm summers.
On higher elevations, plateaus that nevertheless allow permanent settlement, like Kars and Ardahan, are high-continental and sometimes subalpine, with frigid, snowy winters, and mild, rainy summers.
A "true", or rather eu-Mediterranean (Köppen: Csa, Trewartha: Cs) climate exists on sea level from the coasts of Antakya to around Muğla, and north to around Manisa, which is generally considered to be its northern limit.
Winter precipitation depends on local topography, with enclosed bays of convergent air,[citation needed] such as Antalya, getting almost twice the amount of rain as storm-protected areas such as Mersin.
Mountains around the region still show the Mediterranean rainfall pattern, but have mild summers and below-freezing temperatures during winter, creating a zone which may be termed oro-Mediterranean.
Often of a meso- or supra-Mediterranean quality at sea-level; its vegetation at sea level is similar to the lower mountains of the "true" Mediterranean region, with heat-tolerant broadleaf oaks and occasional mesophilous trees, such as beech.
This area does have similarities to the pre-Mediterranean climate further south, but its lower sunshine, light winter precipitation and milder, wetter summers distinguish the two.
Rainfall follows the general distribution of the region, but the area is less humid than expected in all seasons.As the Black Sea coast assumes a southwest-northeast direction once again, rainfall increases, and forms the near-subtropical, extremely humid climate (Köppen: Cfa, Trewartha: Cf) prevalent in the eastern Black Sea region.
Featuring temperate rainforests, its temperatures are very slightly warmer than the transitional zone further west, but rainfall in this region is nearly constant in frequency, varying only by intensity.
Mountains in this region have a perhumid, alpine climate with verdant meadows (Turkish: yayla) alternating with krummholz and boreal forests.
In the far-northeast of the country, often in elevations above 1,500 metres (4,900 ft), the summerly drying trend is no longer observed, and a unique, high-continental climate (Köppen: Dfb/Dfc, Trewartha: Dc/Ec) forms near Kars and Ardahan.
[19] In drier areas of Central and Eastern Anatolia, a semi-arid, occasionally sub-humid climate (Köppen: BSk/Dsa, Trewartha: BS/Dc) takes hold, due to extensive rain-shadowing from all sides.
