Recognizing, sensing, and reducing the urban heat island (UHI) effect have become a fundamental subject in many countries, regions, and big cities during the last two decades. This study aims to investigate the changes in land cover and how they affect urban heat in Baghdad, Iraq by using time-series remote sensing dataset. The specific objectives of this study are to provide comprehensive documentation of land cover changes in Baghdad for the years 2000, 2014, and 2024 using Landsat datasets. The Land Surface Temperature registered a continuous increase in the temperature values due to the global warming during the study period (2000–2024). The maximum land surface temperature increased about 12 °C during examination time period. In addition, the UHI intensity of Baghdad showed higher values over the 20 years. The results reveal a clear, significant, and positive correlation between the LST and the locations of the neighborhoods (residential buildings), indicating that the LST increases in proportion to the neighborhood locations, where R2 values about 0.7 for the study period. This suggests that urban behavior tends to control local microclimates.