Climate characteristics of Nasiriyah city

الملخص EN

The aim of this study is to investigatingthe climate characteristics of the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyahusing Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) data for the period 1980-2016.

The data includes monthly mean values of air temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, and monthly total of rainfall.

Results indicate that the temperature is ranging between 10 (during winter) and 40 o C (during summer).

The city is characterized by wet winter and a very dry summer.

Low pressure values prevail during summer and higher values prevails during winter.

Wind speed ranges from 1 during winter to more than 7 during summer and mainly blowing form west and north west.

The rainfall pattern shows that rainfall during the rainy season (October-May) in the city varies form one year to another and there is no distinct trend for rainfall.

Time series and trends analysis of temperature and rainfall showed an increasing in temperature during July and slight decreasing in January.

The relative humidity has showed very small variation during the period 1980-2016.

The annual rainfall was found to be decreasing.