Istanbul, Turkey Gets The Bad Weather Award Of The Week: Extreme Hail, Flooding

People struggle through hail and debris during an epic
storm in Istanbul, Turkey this week.

Istanbul, Turkey probably had the world's worst weather this week.

On Thursday, an epic hail and wind storm and flash flood struck the sprawling city, injuring 10 people and, as you might expect, caused widespread damage.

Countless car and building windows were blown out, a number of roofs collapsed and flooding caused additional destruction.

Thursday's storm also knocked a crane over onto some oil barrels, setting off a large fire. An airliner had to make an emergency landing after hail badly damaged its front cone.

This was the second severe, very damaging storm in Istanbul this month.


Here's hail at least as big as baseballs hitting a street inundated by the flash flood:





Here's a video compilation, which includes outdoor tables at a restaurant disappearing into the maw of the storm, traffic navigating through the hail with car windows blown out, and flash flooding in the streets of Istanbul:





I don't know the veracity of this video, so it could well be a fake joke, fake news, but it's supposedly an Istanbul reporter outside in the storm who is perhaps too dedicated to her job.

Reputable news organizations have also shared this video, so I'm assuming they checked and it's legit. In any event, it's goofy enough to post: