Geography of Kuwait
Kuwait is a country in the Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait is located at the far northwestern corner of the Persian Gulf. Kuwait is 17,820 square kilometres in size. At its most distant points, it is about north to south, and east to west. Kuwait's area consists mostly of desert. Boundaries and geographic features. As previously mentioned, Kuwait borders the Persian Gulf with of coast. Within its territory are ten islands, two of which, Bubiyan (the largest) and Warbah, are strategically important. Kuwait's most prominent geographic feature is  Kuwait Bay (Jun al Kuwayt), which indents the shoreline for about forty kilometers, providing natural protection for the port of Kuwait, and accounts for nearly one third of the country's shoreline. To the south and west, Kuwait shares a 250-km border with Saudi Arabia. The boundary between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia was set by the Treaty of Al Uqayr in 1922, which also established the Saudi–Kuwaiti neutral zone of 5,700 square kilometers between the two nations. In 1966, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia agreed to divide the neutral zone; the partitioning agreement making each country responsible for administration  in its portion was signed in December 1969. The resources in the area, now known as the Divided Zone, are not affected by the agreement. The oil from onshore and offshore fields continues to be shared equally between the two countries. The third side of the triangle-shaped nation is the 240 kilometers of historically contested border between Kuwait and Iraq. Although the Iraqi government, which had first asserted a claim to rule Kuwait in 1938, recognized the borders with Kuwait in 1963 (based on agreements made earlier in the century), it continued to press Kuwait for control over Bubiyan  and Warbah islands through the 1960s and 1970s. In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and, shortly thereafter, formally incorporated the entire country into Iraq. Under United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 687, after the restoration of Kuwaiti sovereignty in 1991, a UN commission undertook formal demarcation of the borders on the basis of those agreed to in 1963. The boundary was demarcated in 1992. Iraq initially refused to accept the commission's findings but ultimately accepted them in November 1994. Climate. Kuwait has a hot and dry arid climate. Rainfall in the nation varies from a year. Actual rainfall has  ranged from a year to as much as . In summer, average daily high temperatures range from ; the highest ever temperature recorded in Kuwait was at Mitribah on 21 July 2016 which is the highest recorded temperature in Asia and also the third highest in the world. The summers are relentlessly long, punctuated mainly by dramatic dust storms in June and July when northwesterly winds cover the cities in sand. In late summer, which is more humid, there are occasional sharp, brief thunderstorms. By November summer is over, and colder winter weather sets in, dropping temperatures to as low as at  night; daytime temperatures are in the upper 20s °C (upper 70s to low 80s °F). Frost rarely occurs; rain is more common and falls mostly in the spring. Kuwait's winter is colder than in other Persian Gulf countries, such as Bahrain, Qatar or United Arab Emirates. Kuwait experiences colder weather because it is situated farther north, and because of cold winds blowing from upper Iraq and Iran. Geology and aquifers. The land was formed in a recent geologic era. In the south, limestone rises in a long, north-oriented dome that lies beneath the surface. It is  within and below this formation that the principal oil fields, Kuwait's most important natural resource, are located. In the west and north, layers of sand, gravel, silt, and clay overlie the limestone to a depth of more than 210 meters. The upper portions of these beds are part of a mass of sediment deposited by a great wadi whose most recent channel was the Wadi al Batin, the broad shallow valley forming the western boundary of the country. On the western side of the Al Rawdatayn geological formation, a freshwater aquifer was discovered in 1960 and became Kuwait's  principal water source. The supply is insufficient to support extensive irrigation, but it is tapped to supplement the distilled water supply that fills most of the country's needs. The only other exploited aquifer lies in the permeable zone in the top of the limestone of the Ash Shuaybah field south and east of the city of Kuwait. Unlike water from the Al Rawdatayn aquifer, water from the Ash Shuaybah aquifer is brackish. Millions of liters a day of this water are pumped for commercial and household purposes. Human geography. The bulk of the Kuwaiti population lives in the coastal  capital of the city of Kuwait. Smaller populations inhabit the nearby city of Al Jahrah, smaller desert and coastal towns, and, prior to the Persian Gulf War, some of the several nearby gulf islands, notably Faylakah.