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Reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is significant for water resources planning and environmental studies. Many equations have been developed for ETo estimation in various geographic and climatic conditions, of which, the Penman-Monteith FAO 56 (PMF-56) equation was accepted as reference method. A major complication in estimating ETo by the PMF-56 model is the requirement for meteorological data that may not be readily available from typical weather stations in many areas of the globe. This restriction necessitates use of simpler models which require less input data. In this study, the original and five modified versions of the Hargreaves equation that require only temperature and rainfall were evaluated in humid, semi-humid, semi-arid and arid climates in Iran. The results showed that the original and modified versions of the Hargreaves equation had the poorest performance in semi-humid climate and the best performance in windy humid environment. Further, the ETo estimations with the Hargreaves equations having rainfall parameter were poor as compared to those from the PMF-56 method under majority of the climatic situations studied.