TEHRAN — Spring snow which blanketed some provinces on Monday has surprised people across the country.

Except for a heavy snowfall in late January in some 17 provinces, over the past water year (September 23, 2017 to March 20, 2018) dry autumn turn into an even drier winter and many cities experienced lower-than-normal precipitation amounts compared to the long-term average.

Except for northern and northwestern provinces of Ardebil, West Azarbaijan, Golestan and East Azarbaijan which received above-normal annual rainfall other provinces suffered low precipitation over the past six months.

And now snow and rain are coming down in some 13 provinces and significant temperature drop caught Iranians off guard. According to Iranian meteorological organization the current weather conditions will persist throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, ISNA reported.

Western, southwestern, northern, central, eastern and northwestern provinces of Iran are either blanketed with snow or poured with rain on Monday. The report states that rain and snow will mostly fall in eastern and central Iran on Wednesday. 

Following the rain and snow many roads linking various provinces are either closed by snow or flooded. As per a news piece by IRNA news agency 8 nomads in Izeh, southwestern province of Khuzestan, went missing on Sunday night. Three are found alive and search and rescue workers are still looking for the rest. 

The Climatological Research Institute of Iran has announced in late March that much of the country should expect higher than average temperatures as well as less precipitation this spring. The announcement also predicted that rainfall patterns won’t change over the current Iranian calendar year ending on March 20, 2019. 

While water shortage has become a matter of concern both for the government and people who are actually feeling the adverse effects of low precipitations we just have to cross our fingers and wish for heavier rainfall and snowfall to compensate for the past year shortages. 
 
MQ/MG