The College of Education Ibn Rushd for Humanities at the University of Baghdad held a discussion of a master’s thesis entitled “Analysis of the Cold and Hot Nights Index in Southern Iraq,” submitted by Murtadha Waleed Khalid, a researcher in the Department of Geography, specializing in Physical Geography.
The discussion committee was chaired by Prof. Dr. Zainab Wanas Khudair, with Prof. Dr. Yousif Mohammed Ali serving as a member and supervisor, and Asst. Prof. Dr. Sawsan Kamal Ahmed as a member. Prof. Dr. Younis Kamel Ali from the College of Education for Humanities at the University of Dhi Qar also joined the committee as an external member.
The study aimed to analyze the general trends and changes in cold and hot nights in southern Iraq and identify changes in climatic elements and phenomena. The study was based on data from four meteorological stations representing the study area: Basra, Al-Amarah, Nasiriyah, and Al-Samawah, covering the period from 1974 to 2024. It relied on daily minimum temperature data provided by the Iraqi Meteorological Organization and Seismology, in addition to monthly data on climatic elements and phenomena.
The study reached several findings, most notably that the study area has experienced a decline in extreme cold nights at the annual, seasonal, and monthly levels, while extreme hot nights have shown an increasing trend.
Accordingly, the researcher recommended increasing attention to vegetation cover in the study area, reducing air pollution as one of the contributing factors to global warming, and developing dedicated programs for adaptation measures to address future climate change.
