Geography of Iraq

Coordinates: 33°00′N 44°00′E / 33.000°N 44.000°E / 33.000; 44.000
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Overview map of Iraq
Topography of Iraq

The geography of Iraq is diverse and falls into five main regions: the desert (west of the Euphrates), Upper Mesopotamia (between the upper Tigris and Euphrates rivers), the northern highlands of Iraq, Lower Mesopotamia, and the alluvial plain extending from around Tikrit to the Persian Gulf.

The mountains in the northeast are an extension of the alpine system that runs eastward from the Balkans through southern Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, eventually reaching the Himalayas in Pakistan. The desert lies in the southwest provinces along the borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan and geographically belongs in the Arabian Peninsula.

Major geographical features

Most geographers, including those of the Iraqi government, discuss the country's geography in terms of four main zones or regions: the desert in the west and southwest; the rolling upland between the upper Tigris and Euphrates rivers (in Arabic the Dijla and Furat, respectively); the highlands in the north and northeast; and the alluvial plain through which the Tigris and Euphrates flow. Iraq's official statistical reports give the total land area as 438,446 km2 (169,285 sq mi), whereas a United States Department of State publication gives the area as 434,934 km2 (167,929 sq mi).

Upper Mesopotamia

Further information: Upper Mesopotamia
Agriculture is the main occupation of the people.

The uplands region, between the Tigris north of

Mediterranean
vegetation. The vegetation cyclically dries out and appear brown in the virtually arid summer and flourish in the wet winter.

Lower Mesopotamia

Further information: Lower Mesopotamia, Mesopotamian Marshes, and Shatt al-Arab

An

Hawr al Hammar
, the result of centuries of flooding and inadequate drainage. Much of it is permanent marsh, but some parts dry out in early winter, and other parts become marshland only in years of great flood.

Because the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates above their confluence are heavily silt- laden, irrigation and fairly frequent flooding deposit large quantities of silty loam in much of the delta area. Windborne silt contributes to the total deposit of sediments. It has been estimated that the delta plains are built up at the rate of nearly twenty centimeters in a century. In some areas, major floods lead to the deposit in temporary lakes of as much as thirty centimeters of mud.

The Tigris and Euphrates also carry large quantities of

Buhayrat al Habbaniyah
.

Baghdad area

Main article: Baghdad Belts
Panoramic view of the Tigris as it flows through Baghdad

Between Upper and Lower Mesopotamia is the urban area surrounding

Babil and Wasit in the southeast and around to Al Anbar
in the west.

Highlands

Main articles: Zagros Mountains and Hamrin Mountains
A road through the Zagros Mountains
Barzan Gorge, Rawandiz

The northeastern highlands begin just south of a line drawn from

Kurds
.

Desert

Main articles: Syrian Desert and Arabian Desert
A reservoir in the Samawah desert Southern Iraq

The desert zone, an area lying west and southwest of the Euphrates River, is a part of the Syrian Desert and Arabian Desert, which covers sections of Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia and most of the Arabian Peninsula. The region, sparsely inhabited by pastoral Bedouins, consists of a wide stony plain interspersed with rare sandy stretches. A widely ramified pattern of wadis–watercourses that are dry most of the year–runs from the border to the Euphrates. Some wadis are over 400 km (250 mi) long and carry brief but torrential floods during the winter rains.

Western and southern Iraq is a vast desert region covering some 64,900 square miles (168,000 square kilometres), almost two-fifths of the country. The western desert, an extension of the Syrian Desert, rises to elevations above 1,600 feet (490 metres). The southern desert is known as Al-Hajarah in the western part and as Al-Dibdibah in the east. Both deserts are part of the Arabian Desert. Al Hajarah has a complex topography of rocky desert, wadis, ridges, and depressions. Al-Dibdibah is a more sandy region with a covering of scrub vegetation. Elevation in the southern desert averages between 1,000 and 2,700 feet (300 and 820 metres). A height of 3,119 feet (951 metres) is reached at Mount 'Unayzah at the intersection of the borders of Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The deep Wadi Al-Batin runs 45 miles (72 km) in a northeast–southwest direction through Al-Dibdibah. It has been recognized since 1913 as the boundary between western Kuwait and Iraq.

Tigris–Euphrates river system

Main article: Tigris–Euphrates river system
Mosul Dam

The Euphrates originates in Turkey, is augmented by the

Al Qurnah
. The Tigris also rises in Turkey but is significantly augmented by several rivers in Iraq, the most important of which are the
Shatt al-Hayy
, which was once the main channel of the Tigris. Water from the Tigris thus enters the Euphrates through the Shatt al-Hayy well above the confluence of the two main channels at Al Qurnah.

Both the Tigris and the Euphrates break into a number of channels in the marshland area, and the flow of the rivers is substantially reduced by the time they come together at Al Qurnah. Moreover. the swamps act as silt traps, and the Shatt al Arab is relatively silt free as it flows south. Below

Shatt al Arab
from Iran, carrying large quantities of silt that present a continuous dredging problem in maintaining a channel for ocean-going vessels to reach the port at Basra. This problem has been superseded by a greater obstacle to river traffic, however, namely the presence of several sunken hulls that have been rusting in the Shatt al Arab since early in the Iran-Iraq war.

The waters of the Tigris and Euphrates are essential to the life of the country, but they sometimes threaten it. The rivers are at their lowest level in September and October and at flood in March, April, and May when they may carry forty times as much water as at low mark. Moreover, one season's flood may be ten or more times as great as that in another year. In 1954, for example, Baghdad was seriously threatened, and

dikes
protecting it were nearly topped by the flooding Tigris. Since Syria built a dam on the Euphrates, the flow of water has been considerably diminished and flooding was no longer a problem in the mid-1980s. In 1988 Turkey was also constructing a dam on the Euphrates that would further restrict the water flow.

Kut-al-Amara
and from Shumran bend to Ali Gharbi.

Until the mid-twentieth century, most efforts to control the waters were primarily concerned with irrigation. Some attention was given to problems of flood control and drainage before the revolution of July 14, 1958, but development plans in the 1960s and 1970s were increasingly devoted to these matters, as well as to irrigation projects on the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates and the tributaries of the Tigris in the northeast. During the war, government officials stressed to foreign visitors that, with the conclusion of a peace settlement, problems of irrigation and flooding would receive top priority from the government.

Iraqi

silica-containing demo-sponges.[1]

Settlement patterns

Felaw Pond in Sakran Village, northern Iraq

In the rural areas of the alluvial plain and in the lower Diyala region, settlement almost invariably clusters near the rivers, streams, and irrigation canals. The bases of the relationship between watercourse and settlement have been summarized by Robert McCormick Adams, director of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. He notes that the levees laid down by streams and canals provide advantages for both settlement and agriculture. Surface water drains more easily on the levees' back-slope, and the coarse soils of the levees are easier to cultivate and permit better subsurface drainage. The height of the levees gives some protection against floods and the frost that often affect low-lying areas and may kill and/or damage winter crops. Above all, those living or cultivating on the crest of a levee have easy access to water for irrigation and household use in a dry, hot country.

Although there are some isolated homesteads, most rural communities are nucleated settlements rather than dispersed farmsteads; that is, the farmer leaves his village to cultivate the fields outside it. The pattern holds for farming communities in the

Kurdish highlands of the northeast as well as for those in the alluvial plain. The size of the settlement varies, generally with the volume of water available for household use and with the amount of land accessible to village dwellers. Sometimes, particularly in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valleys, soil salinity
restricts the area of arable land and limits the size of the community dependent on it, and it also usually results in large unsettled and uncultivated stretches between the villages.

Fragmentary information suggests that most farmers in the alluvial plain tend to live in villages of over 100 persons. For example, in the mid-1970s a substantial number of the residents of Baqubah, the administrative center and major city of Diyala Governorate, were employed in agriculture.

The Marsh Arabs of the south usually live in small clusters of two or three houses kept above water by

water buffalo herders and lead a semi-nomadic
life. In the winter, when the waters are at a low point, they build fairly large temporary villages. In the summer they move their herds out of the marshes to the river banks.

The war has had its effect on the lives of these denizens of the marshes. With much of the fighting concentrated in their areas, they have either migrated to settled communities away from the marshes or have been forced by government decree to relocate within the marshes. Also, in early 1988, the marshes had become the refuge of deserters from the Iraqi army who attempted to maintain life in the fastness of the overgrown, desolate areas while hiding out from the authorities. These deserters in many instances have formed into large gangs that raid the marsh communities; this also has induced many of the marsh dwellers to abandon their villages.

The war has also affected settlement patterns in the northern

Kurdish
villages, however, remained intact in early 1988.

In the arid areas of Iraq to the west and south, cities and large towns are almost invariably situated on watercourses, usually on the major rivers or their larger tributaries. In the south this dependence has had its disadvantages. Until the recent development of flood control,

dikes needed for protection have effectively prevented the expansion of the urban areas in some directions. The growth of Baghdad, for example, was restricted by dikes on its eastern edge. The diversion of water to the Milhat ath Tharthar and the construction of a canal transferring water from the Tigris north of Baghdad to the Diyala River
have permitted the irrigation of land outside the limits of the dikes and the expansion of settlement.

Climate

Iraq map of Köppen climate classification zones
Snow-capped mountains in Iraq
Dust storms in Iraq, on July 30, 2009.

The climate of Iraq is mainly a

An Nasiriyah on 2 August 2011.[3] Most of the rainfall occurs from December through April and averages between 100 and 180 millimeters (3.9 and 7.1 in) annually. The mountainous region of northern Iraq receives appreciably more precipitation than the central or southern desert region, where they tend to have a Mediterranean climate
.

Roughly 90% of the annual rainfall occurs between November and April, most of it in the winter months from December through March. The remaining six months, particularly the hottest ones of June, July, and August, are extremely dry.

Except in the north and northeast, mean annual rainfall ranges between 100 and 190 millimeters (3.9 and 7.5 in). Data available from stations in the foothills and steppes south and southwest of the mountains suggest mean annual rainfall between 320 and 570 millimeters (12.6 and 22.4 in) for that area. Rainfall in the mountains is more abundant and may reach 1,000 millimeters (39.4 in) a year in some places, but the terrain precludes extensive cultivation. Cultivation on nonirrigated land is limited essentially to the mountain valleys, foothills, and

steppes
, which have 300 millimeters (11.8 in) or more of rainfall annually. Even in this zone, however, only one crop a year can be grown, and shortages of rain have often led to crop failures.

Mean minimum temperatures in the winter range from near freezing (just before dawn) in the northern and northeastern foothills and the western desert to 2 and 4 to 5 °C (35.6 and 39.2 to 41.0 °F) in the alluvial plains of southern Iraq. They rise to a mean maximum of about 16 °C (60.8 °F) in the western desert and the northeast, and 17 °C (62.6 °F) in the south. In the summer mean minimum temperatures range from about 27 to 31 °C (80.6 to 87.8 °F) and rise to maxima between roughly 41 and 45 °C (105.8 and 113.0 °F). Temperatures sometimes fall below freezing and have fallen as low as −14 °C (6.8 °F) at Ar Rutbah in the western desert. Such summer heat, even in a hot desert, is high and this can be easily explained by the very low elevations of deserts regions which experience these exceptionally searing high temperatures. In fact, the elevations of cities such as Baghdad or Basra are near the sea level (0 m) because deserts are located predominantly along the Persian Gulf. That is why some Gulf's countries like Iraq, Iran and Kuwait experience extreme heat during summer, even more extreme than the normal level. The searing summer heat only exists in low elevations in these countries while mountains and higher elevations know much more moderated summer temperatures.

The summer months are marked by two kinds of wind phenomena. The southern and southeasterly sharqi, a dry, dusty wind with occasional gusts of 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph), occurs from April to early June and again from late September through November. It may last for a day at the beginning and end of the season but for several days at other times. This wind is often accompanied by violent duststorms that may rise to heights of several thousand meters and close airports for brief periods. From mid-June to mid-September the prevailing wind, called the shamal, is from the north and northwest. It is a steady wind, absent only occasionally during this period. The very dry air brought by this shamal permits intensive sun heating of the land surface, but the breeze has some cooling effect.

The combination of rain shortage and extreme heat makes much of Iraq a desert. Because of very high rates of evaporation, soil and plants rapidly lose the little moisture obtained from the rain, and vegetation could not survive without extensive irrigation. Some areas, however, although arid, do have natural vegetation in contrast to the desert. For example, in the

Zagros Mountains in northeastern Iraq there is permanent vegetation, such as oak trees, and date palms
are found in the south.

Climate data for Baghdad
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 15.5
(59.9) 		18.5
(65.3) 		23.6
(74.5) 		29.9
(85.8) 		36.5
(97.7) 		41.3
(106.3) 		44.0
(111.2) 		43.5
(110.3) 		40.2
(104.4) 		33.4
(92.1) 		23.7
(74.7) 		17.2
(63.0) 		30.6
(87.1)
Daily mean °C (°F) 9.7
(49.5) 		12
(54) 		16.6
(61.9) 		22.6
(72.7) 		28.3
(82.9) 		32.3
(90.1) 		34.8
(94.6) 		34
(93) 		30.5
(86.9) 		24.7
(76.5) 		16.5
(61.7) 		11.2
(52.2) 		22.8
(73.0)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 3.8
(38.8) 		5.5
(41.9) 		9.6
(49.3) 		15.2
(59.4) 		20.1
(68.2) 		23.3
(73.9) 		25.5
(77.9) 		24.5
(76.1) 		20.7
(69.3) 		15.9
(60.6) 		9.2
(48.6) 		5.1
(41.2) 		14.9
(58.8)
Average rainfall mm (inches) 26
(1.0) 		28
(1.1) 		28
(1.1) 		17
(0.7) 		7
(0.3) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		3
(0.1) 		21
(0.8) 		26
(1.0) 		156
(6.1)
Average rainy days 5 5 6 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 34
Average
relative humidity
(%) 		71 61 53 43 30 21 22 22 26 34 54 71 42
Mean monthly sunshine hours 192.2 203.4 244.9 255.0 300.7 348.0 347.2 353.4 315.0 272.8 213.0 195.3 3,240.9
Average ultraviolet index 3 4 6 8 10 11 11 10 9 6 4 3 7
Source 1: World Meteorological Organization (UN)[4]
Source 2: Climate & Temperature[5][6]
Climate data for Basra
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 34
(93) 		39
(102) 		39
(102) 		42
(108) 		48
(118) 		51
(124) 		53.9
(129.0) 		52.2
(126.0) 		49.6
(121.3) 		46
(115) 		37
(99) 		30
(86) 		53.9
(129.0)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 18.4
(65.1) 		21.7
(71.1) 		27.7
(81.9) 		33.9
(93.0) 		40.7
(105.3) 		45.3
(113.5) 		46.9
(116.4) 		47.1
(116.8) 		43.2
(109.8) 		36.8
(98.2) 		25.9
(78.6) 		19.8
(67.6) 		33.9
(93.1)
Daily mean °C (°F) 12.9
(55.2) 		15.7
(60.3) 		21.0
(69.8) 		27.2
(81.0) 		33.9
(93.0) 		38.3
(100.9) 		40.0
(104.0) 		39.8
(103.6) 		35.7
(96.3) 		29.6
(85.3) 		20.1
(68.2) 		14.4
(57.9) 		27.4
(81.3)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 7.6
(45.7) 		9.5
(49.1) 		13.9
(57.0) 		19.7
(67.5) 		25.9
(78.6) 		30.4
(86.7) 		32.3
(90.1) 		31.9
(89.4) 		27.8
(82.0) 		22.4
(72.3) 		14.5
(58.1) 		9.2
(48.6) 		20.4
(68.8)
Record low °C (°F) −4.7
(23.5) 		−4
(25) 		1.9
(35.4) 		2.8
(37.0) 		8.2
(46.8) 		18.2
(64.8) 		22.2
(72.0) 		20
(68) 		13.1
(55.6) 		6.1
(43.0) 		1
(34) 		−2.6
(27.3) 		−4.7
(23.5)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 34
(1.3) 		19
(0.7) 		23
(0.9) 		11
(0.4) 		4
(0.2) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		7
(0.3) 		30
(1.2) 		31
(1.2) 		159
(6.2)
Average rainy days 4 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 17
Mean monthly sunshine hours 186 198 217 248 279 330 341 310 300 279 210 186 3,084
Mean daily sunshine hours 6 7 7 8 9 11 11 10 10 9 7 6 8
Source 1: Climate-Data.org[7]
Source 2: Weather2Travel for rainy days and sunshine[8]
Climate data for Mosul
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 21.1
(70.0) 		26.9
(80.4) 		31.8
(89.2) 		35.5
(95.9) 		42.9
(109.2) 		44.1
(111.4) 		47.8
(118.0) 		49.3
(120.7) 		46.1
(115.0) 		42.2
(108.0) 		32.5
(90.5) 		25.0
(77.0) 		49.3
(120.7)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 12.4
(54.3) 		14.8
(58.6) 		19.3
(66.7) 		25.2
(77.4) 		32.7
(90.9) 		39.2
(102.6) 		42.9
(109.2) 		42.6
(108.7) 		38.2
(100.8) 		30.6
(87.1) 		21.1
(70.0) 		14.1
(57.4) 		27.8
(82.0)
Daily mean °C (°F) 7.3
(45.1) 		9.1
(48.4) 		13.1
(55.6) 		18.2
(64.8) 		24.5
(76.1) 		30.3
(86.5) 		34.0
(93.2) 		33.4
(92.1) 		28.7
(83.7) 		22.1
(71.8) 		14.2
(57.6) 		9.0
(48.2) 		20.3
(68.6)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 2.2
(36.0) 		3.4
(38.1) 		6.8
(44.2) 		11.2
(52.2) 		16.2
(61.2) 		21.3
(70.3) 		25.0
(77.0) 		24.2
(75.6) 		19.1
(66.4) 		13.5
(56.3) 		7.2
(45.0) 		3.8
(38.8) 		12.8
(55.1)
Record low °C (°F) −17.6
(0.3) 		−12.3
(9.9) 		−5.8
(21.6) 		−4.0
(24.8) 		2.5
(36.5) 		9.7
(49.5) 		11.6
(52.9) 		14.5
(58.1) 		8.9
(48.0) 		−2.6
(27.3) 		−6.1
(21.0) 		−15.4
(4.3) 		−17.6
(0.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 62.1
(2.44) 		62.7
(2.47) 		63.2
(2.49) 		44.1
(1.74) 		15.2
(0.60) 		1.1
(0.04) 		0.2
(0.01) 		0.0
(0.0) 		0.3
(0.01) 		11.8
(0.46) 		45.0
(1.77) 		57.9
(2.28) 		363.6
(14.31)
Average precipitation days 11 11 12 9 6 0 0 0 0 5 7 10 71
Mean monthly sunshine hours 158 165 192 210 310 363 384 369 321 267 189 155 3,083
Source 1:
World Meteorological Organisation (UN)[9]
Source 2: Weatherbase (extremes only)[10]

Area and boundaries

In 1922 British officials concluded the Treaty of Mohammara with Abd al Aziz ibn Abd ar Rahman

Al Saud, who in 1932 formed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The treaty provided the basic agreement for the boundary between the eventually independent nations. Also in 1922 the two parties agreed to the creation of the diamond-shaped Neutral Zone of approximately 7,500 km2 (2,900 sq mi) adjacent to the western tip of Kuwait in which neither Iraq nor Saudi Arabia would build dwellings or installations. Bedouins from either country could utilize the limited water and seasonal grazing resources of the zone. In April 1975, an agreement signed in Baghdad
fixed the borders of the countries.

Through Algerian mediation, Iran and Iraq agreed in March 1975 to normalize their relations, and three months later they signed a treaty known as the Algiers Accord. The document defined the common border all along the Khawr Abd Allah (Shatt) River estuary as the thalweg. To compensate Iraq for the loss of what formerly had been regarded as its territory, pockets of territory along the mountain border in the central sector of its common boundary with Iran were assigned to it. Nonetheless, in September 1980 Iraq went to war with Iran, citing among other complaints the fact that Iran had not turned over to it the land specified in the Algiers Accord. This problem has subsequently proved to be a stumbling block to a negotiated settlement of the ongoing conflict.

In 1988 the boundary with Kuwait was another outstanding problem. It was fixed in a 1913 treaty between the Ottoman Empire and British officials acting on behalf of Kuwait's ruling family, which in 1899 had ceded control over foreign affairs to Britain. The boundary was accepted by Iraq when it became independent in 1932, but in the 1960s and again in the mid-1970s, the Iraqi government advanced a claim to parts of Kuwait. Kuwait made several representations to the Iraqis during the war to fix the border once and for all but Baghdad repeatedly demurred, claiming that the issue is a potentially divisive one that could inflame nationalist sentiment inside Iraq. Hence in 1988 it was likely that a solution would have to wait until the war ended.

Area:
total: 438,317 km2 (169,235 sq mi)
land: 437,367 km2 (168,868 sq mi)
water: 950 km2 (370 sq mi)

Land boundaries:
total: 3,809 km (2,367 mi)
border countries: Iran 1,599 km (994 mi), Saudi Arabia 811 km (504 mi), Syria 599 km (372 mi), Turkey 367 km (228 mi), Kuwait 254 km (158 mi), Jordan 179 km (111 mi)

Coastline: 58 km (36 mi)

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) continental shelf: not specified

Terrain:
mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in south with large flooded areas; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
highest point:

Cheekah Dar
3,611 m (11,847 ft)

Resources and land use

Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur

Land use:
arable land: 7.89%
permanent crops: 0.53%
other: 91.58% (2012)

Irrigated land: 35,250 km2 or 13,610 sq mi (2003)

Total renewable water resources: 89.86 km3 or 21.56 cu mi (2011)

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):
total: 66 km3/yr (7%/15%/79%)
per capita: 2,616 m3/yr (2000)

While its proven

oil reserves of 112 billion barrels (17.8×10^9 m3) ranks Iraq fifth in the world behind Iran, the United States Department of Energy estimates that up to 90 percent of the country remains unexplored. Unexplored regions of Iraq could yield an additional 100 billion barrels (16×10^9 m3). Iraq's oil production costs are among the lowest in the world. However, only about 2,000 oil wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared to about 1 million wells in Texas alone.[11]

Environmental concerns

Main article: Environmental issues in Iraq

Natural hazards: dust storms, sandstorms, floods

Environment - current issues: government water control projects have drained most of the inhabited marsh areas east of An Kshatriya by drying up or diverting the feeder streams and rivers; a once sizable population of Shi'a Muslims, who have inhabited these areas for thousands of years, has been displaced; furthermore, the destruction of the natural habitat poses serious threats to the area's wildlife populations; inadequate supplies of potable water; development of Tigris-Euphrates Rivers system contingent upon agreements with upstream riparian Turkey; air and water pollution; soil degradation (desalination) and erosion; and desertification.

Environment - international agreements:
party to:

Ozone Layer Protection

signed, but not ratified:
Environmental Modification

Major regressions:
Minor ecoregions:

See also

References

  1. ^
    PMID 24603901
    .
  2. ^ "Weather longterm historical data Baghdad, Iraq". The Washington Post. 1999. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014.
  3. ^ Brugge, Roger. "World weather news, August 2011". Department of Meteorology, University of Reading. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016.
  4. ^ "World Weather Information Service – Baghdad". World Meteorological Organization. Archived from the original on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  5. ^ "Baghdad Climate Guide to the Average Weather & Temperatures, with Graphs Elucidating Sunshine and Rainfall Data & Information about Wind Speeds & Humidity". Climate & Temperature. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  6. ^ "Monthly weather forecast and climate for Baghdad, Iraq". Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  7. ^ "Climate: Basra – Climate graph, Temperature graph, Climate table". Climate-Data.org. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  8. ^ "Basra Climate and Weather Averages, Iraq". Weather2Travel. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  9. ^ "World Weather Information Service – Mosul". United Nations. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  10. ^ "Mosul, Iraq Travel Weather Averages". Weatherbase. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  11. ^ US Department of Energy Information - Assessment of Iraqi Petroleum Assets Archived November 9, 2010, at the Wayback Machine


33°00′N 44°00′E / 33.000°N 44.000°E / 33.000; 44.000

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