🇮🇶Iraq

Iraq spans 29°05′–37°22′N in Western Asia, covering approximately 438,317 km² at the head of the Persian Gulf. The landscape is dominated by the Tigris–Euphrates Mesopotamian alluvial plain where Baghdad and Basra sit, the Syrian Desert spreading across the west, the Jazira upland in the north, and the rugged Zagros Mountains along the east-northeast border with Iran where the highest peak Cheekha Dar reaches 3,611 m in Kurdistan.

The Hawizeh and Hammar marshlands occupy the Tigris–Euphrates confluence. This topography produces a strong climatic gradient: hot desert (BWh) across most central and southern Iraq, hot semi-arid (BSh) on the Jazira and Mesopotamia margins, hot-summer Mediterranean (Csa) on the higher Kurdish foothills and mountains, and colder mountain climates at the highest Zagros elevations with reliable winter snow.

Baghdad sees January highs of 16°C with nights of 5°C and July highs of 45°C, with only 130 mm rainfall almost entirely concentrated November–April, experiencing intensely hot summers regularly above 45°C and the famous summer Shamal northwesterly dust-storm winds. Basra in the south sees January highs of 19°C with nights of 8°C and July highs of 47°C, with 130 mm precipitation, and humidity near the marshy Persian Gulf sometimes exceeds 90%.

Mosul in the north sees January highs of 13°C with nights of 3°C and July highs of 43°C, with 360 mm rainfall. Erbil in Kurdistan sees January highs of 13°C and July highs of 42°C with 420 mm. Sulaymaniyah at 870 m elevation sees January highs of 11°C with nights near −1°C and July highs of 41°C, with 700 mm. Temperatures have ranged from −17.6°C at Mosul to 53.9°C at Basra in July 2016, Iraq's highest on record and one of the highest reliable temperatures ever measured worldwide.

Climate events include the draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes, accelerated in the 1990s, recurrent multi-year droughts, summer heatwaves regularly surpassing 50°C, Shamal sand and dust storms including a series of severe storms in April and May 2022, and rapid Tigris–Euphrates flow decline driven by upstream Turkish and Iranian damming combined with climate change. These changes have altered water availability, ecosystem function, and agricultural productivity across the region.

Our archive covers 51 Iraqi cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The hottest July afternoons are in Al Qurnah, with average highs around 46.2°C, while 'Ākra has the coldest January nights, with average lows near −1.2°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 2.1°C.