Ahad Vazifeh, head of the National Center for Climate and Crisis Management at Iran’s Meteorological Organization, explained the unusually low precipitation this autumn and announced that Iran has experienced “one of the driest autumns of the past five decades.” Vazifeh is a senior official within Iran’s state meteorological system.
On Monday, December 1, he described such a dry autumn as “extremely rare” in recorded climate statistics and said that after around seventy days of autumn, many areas of the country have received no rain or snow.
Vazifeh added: “In nearly three decades of working in meteorology, I have never seen such a situation, and statistical data from the past five decades confirm this.”
This official from the Meteorological Organization emphasized that the unprecedented drought is not limited to Iran and that other countries in the region are also facing similar conditions.
Data from Iran’s Meteorological Organization show that the national average precipitation from the beginning of the season until November 28 has been only 3.9 millimeters, indicating an 88.3% decrease compared to the long-term average.
Earlier, several officials and experts had warned that Iran is on the verge of one of its most critical water-scarce years.
Experts say the main problem lies in the policies of Iran’s regime — from hasty dam construction to inefficient agriculture and fragmented resource management — which have pushed the country to the brink of “water bankruptcy.”
On December 1, the state-run ISNA news agency reported, citing the latest data, that water inflow into the country’s dam reservoirs has decreased by 38% compared to last year.
At present, the volume of water stored in Iran’s dams is only 32% of their total capacity, and sixteen dams in the country are less than 10% full.
Possibility of incoming precipitation systems next week and in winter
The head of the National Center for Climate and Crisis Management continued by noting that, based on weather models, precipitation systems are likely to enter the country starting this week.
Vazifeh explained that the rainfall expected to begin on December 1 in the northern coasts, as well as in the northwest and west, will not be heavy but will represent a noticeable change compared to current conditions.
According to him, another system will enter the country in the middle of next week, and by the end of that week, suitable rainfall is expected in the west, southwest, and the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains, including Tehran, and that “the northern highlands of Tehran will be completely covered in snow.”
In recent days, new dimensions of Iran’s water shortage crisis have come to light, sounding a serious alarm for people’s daily lives and for the ongoing operations of many industries.
On November 29, ISNA reported that Iran has entered one of the most complex historical periods in its water sector, and that the drying of wetlands, unprecedented drops in humidity, reduced cloud cover, and intensified land subsidence paint a worrying picture of the country’s climatic future.
