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In the middle of
Winter 1981-82, Sahintepe was hit by a snowstorm which lasted seven
days and seven nights. A snowstorm coming southwest out of
Europe stalled over the Sea of Marmara, which lay at the foot of the
range of mountains where Sahintepe was located. This storm
developed an circular orbit, coming ashore, dumping snow and then
returning to sea where it gained power and came ashore again.
At one point, snow was falling, the wind was blowing and a fog-like
mist was in the air.
Even the Turkish
nationals who worked on site were scared of this storm, so badly
frightened we made provisions for them to sleep in our lounge rather
than travel up and down the site road. The next few pictures
will give you some idea of how powerful the storm was and how much
snow it left behind. 
On Day 2, I
stepped out of the back door of our dormitory building and snapped
this picture. The pole appearing at the left middle of the
photograph is the right support pole for our volleyball court's
net.
Here I am after
the storm, standing in front of those trees and
the volleyball net, all buried below in the
snow!
Here's what it looked like
on Day Three. See the six foot
fence with barbed wire standing through the snow?
Look at that same scene on Day 6 -- where's the
fence? Yes, I was pretty warm in my parka, gloves, "Russian
hat" and hood!
And here's how it looked coming back
from supper on Day 8 after we dug out a path to the dormitory.
Can you spell C-O-L-D???
At one point, we went sleigh riding on
Flexible Flyers and toboggans down the steep hill from the power
plant to the dining hall! (I kid you not; I was the front
person in the toboggan!)
While we had plenty of
C-rations in case food did not get through, on Day 8, we got into
our Snowcat and followed the bulldozer down three miles to meet
the commissary truck coming from Ankara Air Station to bring our
weekly supplies.
As you can see, everyone
got to get out and help move the food from the truck to the
snowcat so we could go back up to the site. At this point, the
Snowcat is facing to the rear and Sahintepe is off behind the hill
on the horizon, although a bright white light from the site's
tallest antenna mast is showing through the mist above the
hill line.
Check
the Sahintepe weather report from Call.com to see what the weather
is there right now!
(The report is for Sahinyurdu, the
village about 3 miles down the southern face of our hill, so it's
generally the same weather as at Sahintepe.)
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