Geography of Iran - Climate

Climate

See also: Climate

Iran has a variable climate. In the northwest, winters are cold with heavy snowfall and subfreezing temperatures during December and January. Spring and fall are relatively mild, while summers are dry and hot. In the south, winters are mild and the summers are very hot, having average daily temperatures in July exceeding 38 °C (100.4 °F). On the Khuzestan Plain, summer heat is accompanied by high humidity.

In general, Iran has an arid climate in which most of the relatively scant annual precipitation falls from October through April. In most of the country, yearly precipitation averages 250 millimetres (9.8 in) or less. The major exceptions are the higher mountain valleys of the Zagros and the Caspian coastal plain, where precipitation averages at least 500 millimetres (19.7 in) annually. In the western part of the Caspian, rainfall exceeds 1,000 millimetres (39.4 in) annually and is distributed relatively evenly throughout the year. This contrasts with some basins of the Central Plateau that receive ten centimeters or less of precipitation annually.

Caspian Mild and Wet Caspian Mild Mediterranean with Spring Rains Mediterranean Cold Mountains Very Cold Mountains Cold Semi-Desert Hot Semi-Desert Dry Desert Hot Dry Desert Hot Coastal Dry Coastal Dry
  • Southern Alborz range near Firouzkuh

  • Aerial view of Damavand

  • Forest in Gilan Province

Read more about this topic:  Geography Of Iran

Famous quotes containing the word climate:

    The climate of Ohio is perfect, considered as the home of an ideal republican people. Climate has much to do with national character.... A climate which permits labor out-of-doors every month in the year and which requires industry to secure comfort—to provide food, shelter, clothing, fuel, etc.—is the very climate which secures the highest civilization.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    Nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere; and he who has great duties to perform, which lay claim to all his strength, has, in this respect, a very limited choice. The influence of climate upon the bodily functions ... extends so far, that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty, but also to withhold it from him altogether, so that he never even comes face to face with it.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,
    On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
    Killing their fruit with frowns?
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)