Climate and Vegetation

Generally speaking Istanbul's climate is temperate. Winters are usually fairly mild and cold spells do not last very long.

Boatman & his fellow by Saariy

 Snow does not lie on the ground for more than three or four days. However, generally speaking, these cold spells and snow are followed by southerly winds which raise the temperature and melt the snow. Thus, considerable problems are encountered in terms of municipal services. Throughout history snowfall in Istanbul has been greeted as a kind of minor disaster, although the number of days, when the temperature is below zero and the ground is covered with snow is extremely limited, there is a great deal of rain. In spring and winter it is usually rainy, but summers are hot and sunny. This fine weather generally lasts from May until the end of November. It is said that Autumn, regarded as Istanbul's loveliest season, sometimes lasts until the end of December. Winter rears its head in January and February and spring passes imperceptibly. It is because of all these climatic features that Istanbul is visited by sun-seeking foreigners most of all between April and October, and these two months could be considered as the beginning and end of the “tourist rush”.

The heavy rain, although unlike the frequent torrential rain of the Mediterranean region, is unpleasant and depressing. Two winds provide air circulation in İstanbul. The north wind, or Poyraz, which brings cool, clean air to the city and the famous ‘Lodos’, a warm, sultry wind which changes snow to slush and often results in violent storms at sea. It has been said throughout history that the two natural elements that keep Istanbul clean are its currents and its winds. Refuse is carried away by the currents and foul odors by the winds. However, for a civilized city it is necessary to keep the sea and the coast every bit as clean as the streets and the Municipality will have to adopt a new approach in this respect.

The vegetation of this city has evolved as a result of its temperate, sometimes damp, sometimes rainy, and in the summer months extremely hot. The lush green lawns that used to adorn the picnic places and beauty spots mentioned above are no more. Instead of these grassy areas, which satisfied the city's need for green spaces, there are parks and lawns within the city which are not a satisfactory substitute because of the maintenance problems encountered during the summer months. Throughout its history the city has possessed small groups of trees between its buildings that provide a cool, green “oasis”. Small squares and courtyards of mosques are adorned in this way. It is essential that these small groups of trees, which endow the city with a special kind of beauty, should be preserved from the point of view of its aesthetics.

The city's most typical trees are the cypress and the plane. Cypress trees, a typical feature of mosque courtyards and graveyards, used to surround Istanbul like a dark green belt.lt could now be said that most of the cypresses in front of the Söğütlüçeşme station at Kadıköy have been cut down. İstanbul has also lost most of its plane trees, many of which are several hundred years old, but in spite of this, some of these magnificent monuments of nature are still standing. The plane trees at the top of Alemdar Hill and in the second-hand book market in Bayezıt are examples. The orchards and vegetable gardens that until recently were part of the Istanbul’s scene have decreased considerably in consequence of the growing density of population and the expansion of the city's residential areas. Today the city's fresh fruit and vegetable requirements are met by products raised in greenhouses in areas outside of the province.

Istanbul lies between two seas, on the channel that links these two seas it boasts a rich variety of sea products. The currents and fish migrations have made Istanbul a fishing centre the like of which can be seen in very few places in the world. The geographer Strabonos (born in Amasya circa 60 BC, died circa 19 AD) states that the city earned a great deal of money from the large hauls of tunny fish swarming in its waters. Even today Istanbul preserves this characteristic, one to be found in very few of the world's sea ports. The fishing boats of old which endowed the coastline of Istanbul with such color can no longer be seen in the fishing grounds around the city's coasts. The traditions of these fine, graceful craft that were so much a part of the Istanbul scene need to be carefully nurtured. Apart from the different varieties of Black Sea fish, a number of different varieties, lobsters and shellfish are fished off the coast of Marmara, but many of the latter are disappearing. However, archeological excavations of the Byzantine strata have demonstrated that the people of Istanbul consumed large amounts of shellfish such as mussels and oysters in the past.