Zabol
City in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zabol (Persian: ⓘ)[a] is a city in the Central District of Zabol County, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.[5] Zabol is near the border with Afghanistan.
Demographics
Language and ethnicity
The people of Zabol are a mix of Persians who speak a variant of the Persian language known as Sistani or Seistani, and a small minority of Baloch who speak Balochi, a Northwestern Iranian language.[citation needed]
Population
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 130,642 in 27,867 households.[6] The 2011 census counted 137,722 people in 33,957 households.[7] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 134,950 people in 35,401 households.[2]
Geography
Location
Zabol is located near Lake Hamun, in the endorheic Sīstān Basin, and the region is irrigated by the Helmand River. Lake Hamun is a seasonal lake that is often dry.
Zabol is connected by road to Milak and Zaranj (across the border in Afghanistan). The Delaram-Zaranj Highway provides road connectivity to the rest of Afghanistan. Zabol thus provides Afghanistan access to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf via the Port of Chabahar. Zabol has a regional airport.
Air pollution
The Zabol area is well known for its "120-day wind" (bād-e sad-o-bist-roz), a highly persistent dust storm in the summer which blows from north to south. The disappearance in the 2000s of the nearby Hamoun wetlands has exacerbated the dusty conditions in Zabol,[8] leading the World Health Organization to name Zabol the most polluted city in the world in 2016.[9] A 2017 study in the journal Preventive Medicine suggested that the harm from 30 minutes of cycling outdoors in Zabol's polluted air would outweigh the benefits of the exercise.[10]
Climate
Zabol has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh).
| Climate data for Zabol (normals 1991-2020, extremes 1962–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 29.0 (84.2) |
32.8 (91.0) |
42.3 (108.1) |
45.9 (114.6) |
48.0 (118.4) |
50.8 (123.4) |
49.8 (121.6) |
51.0 (123.8) |
46.8 (116.2) |
42.6 (108.7) |
37.6 (99.7) |
29.0 (84.2) |
51.0 (123.8) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 15.9 (60.6) |
19.4 (66.9) |
25.4 (77.7) |
32.3 (90.1) |
37.5 (99.5) |
41.3 (106.3) |
42.5 (108.5) |
40.8 (105.4) |
36.9 (98.4) |
31.0 (87.8) |
23.4 (74.1) |
17.6 (63.7) |
30.3 (86.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 8.5 (47.3) |
11.6 (52.9) |
17.3 (63.1) |
23.9 (75.0) |
29.5 (85.1) |
33.6 (92.5) |
35.3 (95.5) |
33.6 (92.5) |
28.9 (84.0) |
22.3 (72.1) |
15.0 (59.0) |
9.7 (49.5) |
22.4 (72.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 2.1 (35.8) |
4.8 (40.6) |
9.9 (49.8) |
16.1 (61.0) |
21.7 (71.1) |
26.2 (79.2) |
28.7 (83.7) |
27.2 (81.0) |
21.7 (71.1) |
14.7 (58.5) |
7.9 (46.2) |
3.0 (37.4) |
15.3 (59.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −12.0 (10.4) |
−9.0 (15.8) |
−2.2 (28.0) |
3.0 (37.4) |
7.2 (45.0) |
14.0 (57.2) |
19.0 (66.2) |
12.0 (53.6) |
6.0 (42.8) |
0.0 (32.0) |
−4.0 (24.8) |
−10.0 (14.0) |
−12.0 (10.4) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 12.5 (0.49) |
9.9 (0.39) |
14.8 (0.58) |
4.6 (0.18) |
1.2 (0.05) |
0.1 (0.00) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.3 (0.01) |
2.2 (0.09) |
5.7 (0.22) |
51.3 (2.01) |
| Average snowfall cm (inches) | 0.4 (0.2) |
0.1 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.5 (0.2) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 2.2 | 2.0 | 2.8 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 10.5 |
| Average snowy days | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 50 | 45 | 42 | 35 | 27 | 22 | 19 | 19 | 20 | 27 | 39 | 47 | 33 |
| Average dew point °C (°F) | −1.5 (29.3) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
3.4 (38.1) |
6.9 (44.4) |
7.7 (45.9) |
8.3 (46.9) |
8.4 (47.1) |
6.3 (43.3) |
2.9 (37.2) |
1.9 (35.4) |
0.6 (33.1) |
−1.5 (29.3) |
3.6 (38.5) |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 211 | 209 | 232 | 265 | 314 | 327 | 334 | 326 | 303 | 291 | 240 | 218 | 3,270 |
| Mean daily daylight hours | 10.4 | 11.1 | 12 | 12.9 | 13.7 | 14.1 | 13.9 | 13.2 | 12.3 | 11.4 | 10.6 | 10.2 | 12.1 |
| Average ultraviolet index | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 7 |
| Source 1: NOAA NCEI[11] (snowfall and snow/sleet days for 1981-2010)[12] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Iran Meteorological Organization (records)[13] Weather Atlas (UV index and daylight hours),[14] Ogimet (April record high)[15] | |||||||||||||
Colleges and universities
The city is home to Zabol University, the largest university in the city, as well as the Zabol Medical Science University and the Sistan Museum of Anthropology.
- Islamic Azad university, Zabol Branch
- Payame-noor university of Zabol
See also
Media related to Zabol at Wikimedia Commons
Notes
- Also romanized as Zâbol; also known as Zābul. Referred to as Sistan until the late 1920s, the city was renamed Zabol by Reza Shah Pahlavi[3][4]