Weather for hitchhiking and camping in Iran in November or March

Question

It's now early November and I'm in Tbilisi, Georgia. It's getting very cold at night (for me).

I have long had a plan to hitchhike from here through Armenia and Iran to Kuwait. But I probably expected it to happen a bit earlier before the cold. I need at least a couple of weeks to get a visa for Iran...

So how cold or otherwise unpleasant will the weather be on the route along western Iran?

I only have normal tent, sleeping bag, and clothing. No special cold weather gear and no money to buy expensive stuff.

The other option is to postpone this part of the trip until March. But will that be any warmer/drier?

(I don't intend to do such a trip in the middle of winter or after March. It's either "soon" or "in March".)

Answer 1

I calculated the route of your trip so that we can see trough which regions you will probably travel. The first part of your trip goes trough Armenia and there is already the first problem. Wikipedia says about the climate in Armenia:

Winters are quite cold with plenty of snow, with temperatures ranging between -10 and -5 °C (14 and 23 °F).

I think without appropriate equipment you will have some really really cold nights. And because of the lot of snow that you can expect it will both be difficult to find a place to built up your tent and also to travel at a reasonable pace, because the snow will have big impact on the traffic.

Next to that the western part of Iran has to be crossed. Iran has some very different climate zones as Wikipedia states:

On the northern edge of the country (the Caspian coastal plain) temperatures rarely fall below freezing and the area remains humid for the rest of the year. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 29 °C (84.2 °F).[40][41] Annual precipitation is 680 mm (26.8 in) in the eastern part of the plain and more than 1,700 mm (66.9 in) in the western part.

To the west, settlements in the Zagros basin experience lower temperatures, severe winters with below zero average daily temperatures and heavy snowfall. The eastern and central basins are arid, with less than 200 mm (7.9 in) of rain, and have occasional deserts.[41] Average summer temperatures exceed 38 °C (100.4 °F). The coastal plains of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in southern Iran have mild winters, and very humid and hot summers.

So in the northern part of Iran the climate will be very similar to Armenia. You will have to expect freezing temperatures between zero degrees and as far as I understand the Iranian geography, you will also have to cross the Zagros Mountains, which will be even colder.

But after that you'll reach the Gulf of Oman region. There you can expect very mild winters with temperatures between 15 and 20 degrees.

Judging from this information I would postpone the trip until spring, except you can make sure that you will do the first part of your trip very fast (maybe plane or train) and then hitchhike and camp in the warmer regions.

Answer 2

When I did this I had no idea it would get to -20. I was getting no rides so it took me three days from Georgia to the mountains in Iran.