Country
Iraq
Explore historical and projected climate data, climate data by sector, impacts, key vulnerabilities and what adaptation measures are being taken. Explore the overview for a general context of how climate change is affecting Iraq.
Current Climate Climatology
This page presents Iraq's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list. Data for specific coordinates can be downloaded for in the Data Download page.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
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Climate Data Historical
Iraq's climate is mainly of the continental and subtropical semi-arid type, except for the north and northeastern mountainous regions that have a Mediterranean climate. The country generally experiences winters that vary between cool and cold, and summers are dry with variations between hot and extremely hot temperatures. Rainfall in Iraq is seasonal and occurs mostly during the winter season during December through February for most of the country except in the north and northeast, where the rainy season is from November to April. The climate is also influenced by South and Southeasterly Sharqi, which are dry dust winds that impact the country from April to June and September to November. The North, Northwest Shamal Winds also impact the climate, leading to extensive surface heating.
- Mean annual temperatures have risen across Iraq since the 1950's at a rate of 0.7°С per century.
- For the period 1951 to 2000, the nearest station precipitation records for the northeast of Iraq show an increase of 2.4 mm/month per century, while the nearest station records for the southeast indicate a decline of only 0.88 mm/month per century. The nearest station record to the west indicates a decline of 5.93 mm/month per century.
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