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The performance of eight empirical equations for estimating ETo at 80 weather stations in Iran is evaluated. The equations assessed are Hargreaves (HGS), Trajkovic (TKC), Berti (BTI), Ravazzani (RZI), Irmak (IMK), Turc (TRC) and two Valiantzas methods (VTS1 and VTS2). The FAO56 reference crop Penman-Monteith (PM) equation is used as a baseline to evaluate their performance. Also, a Köppen climate classification map for Iran is developed and the best ETo method for each climate type identified. The updated Köppen climate map shows six climate sub-classes; BWh, BWk, BSh, BSk, Csa and Dsa in Iran with a percentage of land area covered by each sub-class of 43, 17, 7, 9, 11 and 13%, respectively. The best performing ETo equation for each climate class in Iran was HGS for BSh, VTS1 for BWk, and VTS2 for BSk, BWh, Csa and Dsa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]