Iranians Prayed for Rain, but Were Covered in Snow<br />Suddenly, the situation had changed: Schools in many parts of the country were closed; most people could not go to work; the police were calling the situation "critical." Tehran, on the flanks of the Alborz mountain range, traditionally got a lot of snow,<br />but in recent years the city has mainly been covered in yellow smog during the winter months.<br />Ayatollah Reza Ostadi said that God is always testing people with various kinds of disasters,<br />The drought only heightened anxiety, and many in Tehran have suggested<br />that what was needed was not prayers but better leadership: Disastrous water management, they say, has allowed for hundreds of thousands of illegal wells, further diminishing the water supply.<br />Kaveh Madani said that We were afraid we would never see snow again in this city,<br />Water in the two main dams high up in the mountains, which provide this city of<br />12 million with drinking water and electricity, is at historically low levels.<br />Mr. Madani said that We shouldn’t fool ourselves,<br />"The drought is still here, and we have a seriously tough year ahead with empty reservoirs<br />and aquifers, and our endless demand for water." An earlier version of this article misstated the day of a sermon on "rain prayers" in Qom, Iran.<br />This year, when the snow finally came, people in Tehran started cheering, and they did what people across the world do: They had fun.<br />" he said. that When I was a child, schools used to be closed because of heavy snow, but these days they are closed because of air pollution,
