Overview
- Iran conducted its first cloud-seeding flight of the current water year over the Lake Urmia basin and plans further operations in East and West Azerbaijan.
- Authorities plan to keep seeding through mid-May using aircraft or drones when suitable systems exist, according to the National Cloud-Seeding Research Center.
- Nationwide rainfall is about 89% below long-term averages, with meteorologists calling this Iran’s driest autumn in half a century.
- Tehran’s reservoirs have fallen to critical levels, with reserve capacity around 5%, and President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned evacuation could be considered if rains fail.
- Rolling water cuts are being prepared for Tehran and reviewed for Isfahan, Tabriz, and Mashhad, as experts tie the crisis to years of overuse, groundwater depletion, and mismanagement.