A man walks past a "Lovely Tehran" sign in the Iranian capital on May 5, 2025. (Credit: Atta Kenare.)
A thick cloud of dust enveloping a large part of western Iran on Tuesday forced authorities to locally close schools and urge about 13 million residents to stay home, according to state television.
The provinces of Lorestan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Kurdistan (west), Zanjan (northwest), Bushehr (south), and Khuzestan (southwest) are affected by these measures, according to state television.
The public is advised not to go out and to wear a mask for any essential outings, stated national television, noting that locally, visibility does not exceed one kilometer.
In Bushehr, a city located nearly 1,100 kilometers south of Tehran, the air quality on Tuesday is considered "unhealthy for sensitive groups," with an AQI index of 108, which is more than four times the acceptable concentration of PM2.5 pollutant particles in the air as deemed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The meteorological services attribute these conditions to the "movement of a large mass of dust from Iraq towards western Iran."
This increasingly frequent phenomenon in Iran is worsened by drought.
On Monday, more than 240 people were hospitalized for respiratory issues in the province of Khuzestan, according to the official news agency Irna.
In July 2022, authorities had closed schools and offices in Tehran and its suburb due to pollution caused by a sandstorm.
Adverse weather conditions in the country have also led to casualties in recent days.
Nine people have lost their lives and 77 others have been injured during adverse weather over the past week, reported the Tasnim news agency, citing the country's emergency services.