Figure 9 Correlation of Iranian winter precipitation with the 500-hPa gph. the North of Europe. An insignificant positive correla- tion center is also found over the Indian Peninsula. The locations of the correlation centers are quite consistent with the locations of the 500-hPa anomaly pressure centers in Fig. 5(b). The maximum correlation coeffi- cient value (—0.6 to —0.7) is found over Kazakhstan center and the second best correlation center (—0.5 to —0.6) is found over Syria. Similar values are obtained also at higher levels up to 250-hPa for all of the centers. These results are consistent with the large difference found between the GPH anomalies for the two precipitation groups in Iran, as explained previously. (not shown). A significant positive correlation is founc over most parts of Iran for both meridional and zona’ winds, consistent with previous findings. The correla- tion map between the winter precipitation and OLR alsc shows a significant negative center, varying from —0.4 to —0.6, over Iran (not shown).