Climate Change Overview

Country Summary

This page presents high-level information for Iran, Islamic Rep.'s climate zones and its seasonal cycle for mean temperature and precipitation for the latest climatology, 1991-2020. Climate zone classifications are derived from the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system, which divides climates into five main climate groups divided based on seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns. The five main groups are A (tropical), B (dry), C (temperate), D (continental), and E (polar). All climates except for those in the E group are assigned a seasonal precipitation sub-group (second letter).  Climate classifications are identified by hovering your mouse over the legend. A narrative overview of Iran, Islamic Rep.'s country context and climate is provided following the visualizations.

The Islamic Republic of Iran with an area of about 1,648,000 km2 and arid and semi-arid climate is located in the southwest of Asia. More than half of Iran’s land consists of mountains, with one quarter being plains and deserts and less than one quarter constituting arable land. Population is over 85 million as of 2020.

Iran’s economy is characterized by its hydrocarbon, agricultural, and service sector, as well as noticeable state presence in the manufacturing and financial services. Iran ranks second in the world for natural gas reserves and fourth for proven crude oil reserves, and while relatively diversified for an oil exporting country, economic activity and government revenues still rely on oil revenues and have, therefore, been volatile.

Iran encounters several natural disasters. This country is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, where several major fault lines cover at least 90% of the country. In addition, due to less precipitation and more droughts, fire in forests is growing and vast area of the country, 91 million ha, is prone to floods. More than 22 billion cm of runoff is created from floods which lead to soil erosion.  Drought is another natural hazard which is mostly due to water resources mismanagement. Furthermore, central and eastern parts of the country are the main regions affected by sandstorm. Contrary to the sandstorm, dust storm distributes mostly in western provinces. It originates mainly from Wadi areas of Iraq and Saudi Arabia as a result of degraded ponds.