Climate-Zone.com

HomeCitiesTurkeyIstanbulTools › Weather extremes

Weather extremes

How extreme does Istanbul's weather get?

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days Istanbul has recorded — the outer limits of what its weather can do, and how far they sit beyond a normal day.

Based on 34 years of daily weather observations (1991–present), from the Ataturk station 12 km away. Updated through August 2025 — an all-time extreme only changes when a more extreme day actually occurs, so some dates are old. That is normal, not stale data.

The four kinds of extreme

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest single days Istanbul has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year looks like.

🔥 Hottest day
104°F Jul 13, 2000

That is about 18°F hotter than a normal July afternoon in Istanbul (typical high near 86°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 104°F Jul 13, 2000
2 103°F Aug 12, 2002
3 103°F Jun 30, 2017
❄️ Coldest night
13°F Jan 27, 2000

About 25°F colder than a normal January night in Istanbul (typical low near 38°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 13°F Jan 27, 2000
2 16°F Jan 26, 2022
3 19°F Jan 2, 2002
🌧️ Most rain in one day
10.12 in Oct 5, 1993

More rain in a single day than Istanbul usually gets in the whole month of October (typical October total about 3.4 in).

The three most extreme on record

1 10.12 in Oct 5, 1993
2 10.08 in Aug 11, 1993
3 10.04 in Oct 6, 1993

How hot and cold it gets, month by month

The shaded band is the normal range of daily temperatures for each month. The dots show the most extreme it has ever been — so you can see how far beyond a normal day the records really sit.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°110°130° all-time high 104°F JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
normal range of daily temperatureshottest ever recordedcoldest ever recorded

Istanbul's record heat sits well above even a hot day for the season — July's 104°F is about 18°F beyond a normal hot afternoon. Its record cold is just as far below a normal winter night — the dots mark how rare each extreme really is.

In plain terms

In a normal year, Istanbul's warmest days reach the mid-80s°F and its coldest nights drop to the high 30s°F. But across the record it has gone as high as 104°F and as low as 13°F. A single day has delivered over 10 inches of rain. Those are the outer edges worth knowing if you are moving here, planning a trip, or thinking about a house.
Methodology & sources

Temperature & precipitation — 1991–2020 normals computed from 30 years of daily observations at Ataturk, a weather station, about 12 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →