Cold weather, snowfall paralyze daily life in Turkey

Snowfall was negatively affecting the daily life and traffic in Thrace, local authorities said.

"Highway teams are working hard to keep the highway to Derekoy border crossing with Bulgaria open," authorities said.

However, some town and village roads are closed to traffic in the northwestern provinces of Kirklareli and Tekirdag due to heavy snowfall. Some passenger bus companies have cancelled their voyages due to bad weather conditions.

Also, many Turkish and foreign tankers and ships had anchored off the coast of Tekirdag's Sarkoy town due to heavy storm.

Meteorology officials said that the snowfall would lose effect as of Sunday noon.

Also the east of Turkey experienced a very cold night on Saturday. It was -13 degrees Celsius in the eastern province of Ardahan on Saturday night, local meteorology office said.

It was -6 degrees Celsius in Erzincan, -9 in Kars, -5 in Erzurum and Agri, and -2 in Igdir.

However, in another eastern province, citizens are enjoying the sun on Sunday.

Residents of Gevas town of eastern province of Van sat outside cafes, drank teas and enjoyed the sun on Sunday. Meteorology officials said that it was -2 degrees Celsius in the town on Saturday night, bit it was 4 degrees Celsius on Sunday.