Kurdistan winter is a vital time of rain and snow to stock up on water for the very dry and long summer-fall period. The winter of 1991-1992 was relatively brutal, especially for thousands of families returning after years of displacement to the rubble of their destroyed communities. Heating fuel supplies were severely limited. Livelihoods were shattered.

Snowy KurdistanThe Dokan and Darbandikhan reservoirs were constructed primarily for irrigation, secondly for hydropower. Water is stored during winter months and runs out during summer for downstream irrigation and water supply, and to generate power to help meet higher summer energy requirements. Perhaps during only one or two winters since 1991 did the reservoirs reach their maximum levels.

Normal, typical winters in the Kurdistan region usually see at least a few inches of snow on the ground in all three main cities of Duhok, Erbil, and Suleimania. But recent winters have been neither normal nor typical.

This winter seems much better, so far. The snow began in Kasnazan just on the edge of Erbil city on the road toward Suleimania. Minutes beyond the city, on the road from Darband-Gomaspan toward Smaquli, the zigzag up and over the Safeen mountain was treacherous with snow and thick fog. The snow reached all the way down to the residential area of Shaqlawa.

Springtime with all its greenery and wildflowers is looking promising, gorgeous. Beautiful.