Page 249 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

Zerrin Toprak Karaman - Özlem Çakır - Meriç Aziz Berge

South coasts of Türkiye in the last 10 years. In their study reporting the records
of 385 whirlwinds between the years 1818 and 2013, Kahraman and Markowski
(2014) reveal that the South coasts of Türkiye are the region that has the most
tendency to have whirlwinds in Europe. Türkeş (2021) states that the recent
cases of whirlwinds are more frequently experienced compared to the ones
in the past, emphasizing that Türkiye has a whirlwind climatology. Türkeş also
emphasizes the fact that whirlwinds have begun to appear around the coasts
of Eastern Black Sea and Northeastern Anatolia as well.
Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) defines storm in
its “Disaster Administration Glossary” as follows:
“Storm: wind that damages nature and human beings, and blows with a
speed ranging from 23-26 m/sec to 82.8 -93.6 km/h. As the wind speed and
strength increase, so does the damage imposed on nature and humans. On
its own, the term means wind storm. Strong winds bring about rain, snow, hail,
sand, etc., which is the reason why they are called names such as snow storms,
sand storms, dust storms, etc.”(AFAD, 2014).
Due to the definition of storm, the wind speed must also be defined to
evaluate the strong winds as storms. Beaufort wind scale allows a definition
based on wind strength, while due to the development of sensitive devices
measuring wind speed (anemometer), it is possible to state Beaufort scale
in terms of wind speed. According to this scale, cases in which wind speeds
are within or over 17.2-20.7 m/sec (62-74 km/h) are called storms (MGM,
2020). Thanks to the frequently placed and actively working meteorological
observation/recording stations around Türkiye placed by the General
Directorate of Meteorology (MGM), it is possible to record wind speed values
at the locations of the stations. With the measurements, it is possible to track
the storms and their effect areas, and incident observations are prepared and
the ensuing damage is recorded.
MGM Local Directorate of Analysis and Predictions can make weather
forecast and early warnings called “MeteoWarnings” in case of severe
meteorological disasters. Based on the forecasts gained from Dynamic
Atmospheric Models, storms are included in the MeteoWarnings content as
“Strong Winds and Storm”.
The analysis of the press and internet sources reveal that recent storm
and strong wind warnings come first in the meteorological news. The climate
assessment report prepared by the General Directorate of Meteorology also
show that there were 1,024 reported extreme weather conditions in 2021, 40%
of which were storms/whirlwinds (MGM, 2021). On Google search engine, the
entry “fırtına uyarısı meteoroloji” (meteorology storm warning) yields around
1,940,000 (50 seconds) results, which reveals the frequency and intensity of

235 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate