Why air strikes on Tehran oil facilities are causing black rain

Black rain falls as air strikes hit four Iran oil sites

Soot-laden rain, darker than tea, has coated cars and rooftops in Tehran after attacks on refineries.

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Petrol-blue clouds of burning crude drifted over Tehran last night, turning an early-summer downpour into sticky black rain Iran has not witnessed since the war with Iraq four decades ago.

The soot comes from the Abadan and Bandar Abbas refineries, both bombed in a fresh wave of strikes that began in late May. State television showed footage of residents wiping a tar-like film from windscreens and garden furniture, while children tracked oily footprints across apartment lobbies.

Refinery fires pump soot into rain clouds

Meteorologists at Tehran University say updrafts from the burning storage tanks loft carbon particles into nimbo-stratus clouds moving south from the Caspian. When the clouds release rain, the droplets absorb the soot and fall as dark, viscous pellets.

Air-quality tests obtained by the reformist daily Shargh show polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—compounds linked to cancer—at 3.4 micrograms per litre, far above the 0.2 µg/l safety threshold. The paper printed a front-page photo of a glass jar half-filled with chocolate-coloured water collected on Valiasr Avenue, the city’s busiest thoroughfare.

Skin rashes and animal deaths reported

Clinics in the capital have logged 482 outpatient visits for chemical dermatitis since the rain began on Monday. Dr Sara Habibi, deputy at the state-run Motahari Hospital, said most patients arrived complaining of itching behind the ears and inside elbows where the rain had seeped under clothing.

Sheep herders in the Alborz foothills report eleven stillbirths in two days; provincial vets found soot particles lining the animals’ lungs. Iranian environmental chief Ali Salajegheh warned against eating herbs or vegetables watered since the weekend and advised residents to discard rooftop cisterns.

Crude exports already down 600,000 bpd

The oil ministry has not released official damage figures, but tanker-tracking firms estimate Iran’s daily exports have fallen from 1.4 million barrels to roughly 800,000 since the strikes started. Repair crews work around the clock at Abadan, where a direct hit ruptured a distillation column feeding the country’s largest gasoline unit.

Without that unit, Tehran must import fuel—a move complicated by existing sanctions. Motorists queued outside pumps for up to four hours on Tuesday, and ride-hailing apps raised base fares by 30 percent to cover idle time.

Parliament members blame outdated fire foam

During a closed session broadcast live on state radio, conservative MP Ahmad Avai questioned why refinery fire brigades still used protein-based foam that cannot smother modern high-vapour fuels. Oil Minister Javad Owji admitted the last major upgrade of fire-suppression systems dates to 2012, when European suppliers severed ties under pressure from Washington.

The ministry has since asked Oman and Qatar for technical crews, yet neither Gulf state has replied publicly, wary of secondary US penalties on firms that assist Iranian energy projects.

Regional capitals watch fallout anxiously

Envoys in Kuwait City say diplomats are revising contingency plans after residue from the same storm system left grey flecks on cars parked at the US embassy compound, 600 km down-wind. Qatar’s environment ministry has dispatched aircraft to collect air samples above the Persian Gulf, fearing the slick could hamper seawater desalination plants that supply 95 percent of drinking water.

Analysts note that during the 1980s “tanker war”, similar smoke plumes drifted as far as the Indian sub-continent; satellite imagery already shows a brown smear stretching across the Strait of Hormuz toward Pakistan’s Makran coast.

But long-term health risk remains uncertain

The numbers tell a different story once the soot touches soil. Soil scientists interviewed by GlobalBeat calculate that hydrocarbons now coating wheat fields south of Tehran will take 18–24 months to break down—long enough to enter the food chain if farmers replant this autumn.

What’s less clear is whether the government will fund a clean-up in rural districts already battered by drought. Previous budget cuts shifted environmental oversight to local councils that lack lab equipment to test crops.

One family throws away its harvest

Imagine driving before dawn to a small plot in Varamin, 40 km south of Tehran. You have borrowed against next year’s crop to plant 5,000 tomato seedlings under plastic tunnels. Overnight, black pellets pitted the sheeting; when you wipe a fruit on your sleeve, the skin leaves an iridescent smear. Market traders will reject the load, yet the bank payment is due in 30 days. In this scenario—repeated across 200 villages—you either dump the tomatoes by the roadside and absorb the loss, or risk selling them illegally on inner-city curbs.

Globally, conflict-linked pollution rises

The phenomenon of war-time black rain Iran is experiencing mirrors events in eastern Ukraine, where shelled petrochemical plants in Donetsk released benzene into snowfall during 2022. A United Nations Environment Programme report last year catalogued 246 cases of conflict-driven industrial fires worldwide, warning that soot travelling beyond borders may soon be classified as trans-boundary hazardous waste under the Basel Convention. If Tehran lodges a formal complaint, it could force the UN Security Council to debate environmental reparations—an avenue Iraq pursued unsuccessfully after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait set oil wells ablaze.

Oil minister faces MPs next week

Parliament has summoned Javad Owji to present a damage assessment and request emergency funds on 25 June. If lawmakers refuse, the government must either tap the National Development Fund—already depleted by currency support—or issue new debt at interest rates above 25 percent. Meanwhile, meteorologists predict another Caspian weather front arriving Saturday that could wash more residue onto the capital, extending the black rain Iran residents have only just begun to scrub away.