Night thunderstorm and flooding in Izmir, Turkey_144p

Published on Jan 13, 2021
Long-awaited rainfall arrived Tuesday in western Turkey in the form of heavy downpours that flooded houses and shops and left vehicles stranded in the streets. The eastern part of the country, however, is experiencing extraordinary temperatures as thermometers saw record highs in some cities.
The residents of many provinces, especially in western Turkey, had been hoping for rainfall due to dangerously low water levels. In Istanbul, for example, water levels in dams supplying the main grid face a grave risk after decreasing to 19.79% capacity as of early January, the lowest in the past 15 years. Due to a lack of precipitation, the faithful even resorted last month to the well-known Muslim tradition of raising