Picture of the week – first rains

September 23, 2009 - 7:44 AM by Nicky

Jerusalem, Rosh hashana. Two months of rain fall in just two days.

Jerusalem, Rosh hashana 2009. Two months of rain fall in just two days.

Israel was surprised this week by unusually heavy first rains. Accustomed to short, light showers that kick off the winter season, Israel got a soaking instead.

The storms over the Rosh Hashana holiday, brought in by a band of cold weather from Turkey and the Black sea, actually set a new rainfall record – what fell in just two days equaled the average total for both September and October, according to the Water Authority.

The storms were greeted with much pleasure. With five drought years behind us, Israelis are resorting to increasingly creative ways to reuse gray water and conserve fresh water (from short showers to inventive flushing systems for the loo) in the wake of the worst drought in Israel’s history.

In Kfar Saba, for instance, the municipality is now introducing a new biofilter that will clean urban rain water runoff to recharge old and out of service water wells. It’s a pilot project in the country’s first environmentally friendly urban housing project. Watch out for the story in the coming weeks in ISRAEL21c .

As far as rainfall goes, we now have to wait and see what comes next. As we enter an El Nino year, some people are anticipating a wet winter as rainfall patterns across the world respond to the warmer seas.

The Water Authority is warning us not to get too excited, however. In a recent
Jpost article, Water Authority spokesman, Uri Schor announced that El Nino could also cause an even more severe drought year than the last five.

“We’re on the rim of the El Nino effect and no one knows what it will bring. It could conceivably bring a lot of rain, but it could also bring about a severe drought year. It’s clear what we’re all hoping for,” he said.

Given that the last time we had a rainy winter, the Israeli government slowed work on its desalination projects, setting us back several years, it’s probably not surprising he’s so cautious.

For most Israelis, however, this sudden unexpected downfall was a welcome diversion from the heat, and a chance to enjoy that fresh, clean scent that follows the rain.

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