Mosul, Iraq's second city, sits on the banks of the Tigris in the far north of the country, on the northernmost part of the Mesopotamian plain near ancient Nineveh, at approximately 36.34°N, 43.13°E. It has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) — with intensely hot, dry summers and mild but genuinely cool, rainy winters — and it is the rainiest part of Iraq.

Summer, from June to September, is very hot with relentless sun, with July and August the hottest — daytime temperatures around 43°C and peaks reaching 47–48°C — though humidity is low, which makes the heat more bearable than on the humid Gulf coast. It almost never rains between June and September, and the northerly shamal wind blows steadily across the plain.

Winter, from December to February, is mild but not warm, with January averaging around 8°C. Rain falls on seven to ten days a month from December to March, with sunny spells alternating with unsettled, cloudy weather. Nights frequently drop below freezing, and snow occasionally falls on the city — a genuine winter by Iraqi standards.

Mosul is the wettest part of Iraq, receiving around 355 mm of rain a year — modest in absolute terms but far more than Baghdad or Basra — concentrated between November and April, while it almost never rains from June to September. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.

Mosul receives more rain than anywhere else in Iraq, and its winters are cold enough for frost and occasional snow, marking the transition from the Mesopotamian desert toward the mountains of Kurdistan. Spring snowmelt from those mountains sends the Tigris surging past the city between March and May, just as the long, rainless summer begins.

To follow any single measurement in Mosul more closely, use our live instruments: the online barometer for atmospheric pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the hygrometer for humidity, the anemometer for wind speed, the wind vane for wind direction, and the rain gauge for rainfall.