A tornado completely swept through a campsite in the province of Tekirdağ, in the Thrace region of Turkey, with a security camera capturing images of winds of more than 100 kilometres per hour tearing everything in their path.
According to Turkish media, the event took place in a camping area in the village of Elmalı, in the district of Malkara, where heavy rains that started late in the day grew in intensity until they turned into a big storm and finally caused the appearance of a tornado, which swept through the area leaving more than one million liras (more than 28,000 euros) worth of damage, including a 24 square metre tent, 6 solar panels, a wooden pergola and several electricity poles.
“I was in the 24 square metre tent. I came home because my wife called me, and then a big disaster happened. I survived for only 5 minutes. When I looked out of the window of the house, I saw the tent I had been in 5 minutes before blown up, and behind it the pergola. It was very scary. I have never seen such a disaster in this area before,” said Hasan Akçay, the campsite operator, talking about the damage caused by the tornado. “Everything was destroyed, but I’m thankful I wasn’t inside the tent,” he said.
Experts warn that extreme weather events, especially tornadoes, will become more frequent in Turkey because of climate change. Last June Turkey recorded the highest temperatures in Europe due to a heatwave from Africa that left temperatures of up to 35 degrees in Istanbul or more than 40 degrees in the Aegean region, well above the season norm for these regions.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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