Snow in Southwest Asia: Natural Hazards

Winter settled heavily over Southwest Asia in January 2008. Intense cold and moist air combined to bring rare or unusually heavy snow to earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14693&src=map Iraq and earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14683 Iran. Snow arcs from Iran to Turkey in this photo-like image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( modis.gsfc.nasa.gov MODIS ) on NASA's terra.nasa.gov/ Terra satellite on January 15, 2008. AccuWeather reported that bitterly cold air over central Asia caused''sea-effect''snow along the southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea (top right). The cold air moved over the Caspian Sea, picking up moisture, which fell as snow over the mountains of eastern Iran and Azerbaijan. Since the southern shore of the Black Sea (top left) is also snowier than its northern shore, some of this snow may be sea-effect snow as well.