Iraq Geography & Climate

Iraq is defined by two rivers. The Tigris and the Euphrates rise in Turkey, run south-east across the country and join near Basra to form the Shatt al-Arab, which reaches the Gulf along a coastline only about fifty-eight kilometres long — one of the shortest of any substantial country.

The alluvial plain

The land between the rivers is Mesopotamia, flat, silt-rich and irrigated for six thousand years. It holds Baghdad, most of the population and the great archaeological sites, and it is only fertile because of water management that has been maintained, and repeatedly destroyed, since Sumer.

The desert

West and south-west of the Euphrates the country becomes stony desert running into Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — around two fifths of the land area, with very few people.

The Kurdish mountains

The north-east rises into the Zagros, with peaks above three thousand metres on the Iranian and Turkish borders. This is the wettest, greenest and coolest part of the country, with snow in winter, gorges, waterfalls and the only forest Iraq has.

The marshes

Where the rivers converge, the Mesopotamian Marshes once covered a vast area of reed bed and shallow water. They were deliberately drained in the 1990s to punish the population living in them, reduced to a small fraction of their extent, and partly reflooded after 2003. They are now a UNESCO World Heritage site and remain fragile.

Water, upstream

Dams in Turkey and Iran have cut the flow of both rivers substantially, and combined with drought this is the most serious long-term problem the country faces — salinity is rising in the south and the marshes are shrinking again.

Iraq has a hot desert climate across most of its territory and a Mediterranean-influenced one in the mountainous north, with a very wide annual range.

Summer

From June to September the heat is severe. Baghdad averages highs above 43°C in July and August, and Basra has recorded temperatures among the highest reliably measured anywhere on earth, above 53°C. Humidity near the Gulf makes the south worse than the interior, and chronic power shortages mean air conditioning is not guaranteed.

Winter

December to February is mild and pleasant in Baghdad and the south, around 16°C by day, with cold nights. The Kurdish north is properly cold, with heavy snow in the mountains, and a small ski industry at Korek.

Rain

Almost all of it falls between November and April, and there is very little — under 150 millimetres a year in the south, against up to a metre in the northern mountains. Sudden downpours cause flash flooding because the ground cannot absorb them.

Dust storms

The most distinctive hazard. Shamal winds lift fine silt from the dried river plains, and storms can turn the sky orange, close airports and last for days. They have become markedly more frequent as the marshes shrink and drought spreads, and they are a serious respiratory problem.

The northern spring

For a few weeks between March and May the Kurdish uplands are genuinely green, with wildflowers across the slopes around Amadiya and Choman and meltwater running in the gorges. It is the one season in which Iraq looks nothing like its reputation, and it is short — by late May the grass has burned off.

A hotter future

Iraq is among the countries most exposed to climate change: rising temperatures, falling river flow, advancing desertification and increasing salinity in the south are all documented and accelerating.