Squall line over Antalya: a case study of the events of 25 October 2014

A typical squall line with heavy rainfall (≥100mm in 24h) was observed on 25 October 2014 in Antalya, a province located in southwest Turkey. Residential areas sustained serious damage, and the rainfall caused significant disruptions to transportation and daily life, as people were evacuated and many cars were flooded. This study examines the factors that caused the severe rainfall over Antalya. The squall line is considered to be one of the reasons for the heavy rainfall, and satellite and radar observations lend support to this hypothesis. Synoptic conditions, convective available potential energy (CAPE), sounding diagrams (the vertical profile of temperature, humidity and wind in the atmosphere over the geographic location), and numerical weather prediction model outputs were also investigated. As a consequence of the squall line activity over Antalya, 311.6mm of rain fell in an 8-h period in Manavgat district. The 3-day precipitation average for the 12 regions most affected by rainfall was around 165mm. In addition, during the 8-h critical period, the total precipitation for the five regions which were most seriously affected was around 112mm.