Picture of the week – first rains

September 23, 2009 - 7:44 AM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Picture of the Week 

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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Get your raincoats out, we’re in for a stormy winter

July 14, 2009 - 1:55 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Environment, General, Life 

Well, I may not be a weatherman, or indeed be able to even read a satellite map for that matter, but still I think there’s a good chance that Israel is heading for a rainy winter. No, I didn’t put the seaweed out, and it has nothing to do with aches in assorted parts of my body. It’s because of el Nino.

I came across an article in the international press this morning about how el Nino, a natural meteorological cycle that happens every three to seven years when the Pacific Ocean warms, is making a reappearance this year. Experts are predicting wild weather over the next year, from floods in the US and South America, to droughts in Australia, Africa and Asia.

Interesting, I thought. But what does that mean for Israel? A quick Internet search revealed that in el Nino years, Israel gets more rainfall than usual. In fact, scientists at the Weizmann Institute and the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research had rather handily done a paper on it.

The 1996 study showed that there was a striking correlation between el Nino and above-average rainfall in central Israel over the previous 20 years. The winter of 1991/2, for instance, when Israel experienced the worst rainfall in a century, coincided with one of the most devastating el Nino’s in recent years.

Other years with heavy rainfall included 1997-8, 1986-7, and 1982-3 – all of them el Nino years. The scientists also discovered something else – in La Nina years – where the Pacific ocean cools rather than warms– Israel often experiences its driest years.

So far, this time around, experts are predicting a moderate el Nino, but they are warning that sea temperatures are still rising.

With Israel in possibly the most serious drought of its existence, and a water tax about to go into effect tomorrow or the next day, this can’t be anything but good news. While the rest of the world waits with trepidation to discover just how bad this el Nino will be, we at least appear to have something rather good to look forward to.

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In need of rain? Ask a government minister

January 27, 2009 - 3:26 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Environment, General, Israeliness, Life, Religion 

I feel like a fish that has been left out of water too long. I’m literally gasping for rain. Being one of those foreign transplants from grey, rainy Britain, Israel’s warm climate is a frequent source of joy. But while I enjoy the heat and the sunshine, I still need the storms and rain of winter to help me get through the long, hot, barren, endlessly blue and sunny summers where I seem to suffer a kind of reverse seasonal affect disorder.

Oh for a good heavy rainstorm...

Oh for a good heavy rainstorm...


This year I’m not the only one. Even the most hardened Israeli sun-lovers, who normally complain of depression after just one day of rain, are protesting. And with reason. It’s been the driest January since Israeli records began, and it comes after four other exceptionally dry years.
From 1980 to 2007, the available volume of water in Lake Kinneret was 328 million cubic meters a year. This year it will be just 45 million cubic meters. Prof. Uri Shani, head of the Water Authority said the probability of Israel having such a dry winter, after a series of four dry years, was practically zero – but when did probability enter into global warming.
There are all sorts of plans afoot on how to deal with this water crisis – plans which quite frankly should have been put in place a year or two ago, but possibly the most kooky of the lot comes from Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon, who has come up with the idea of changing all the mezuzot in the Israel Water Authority offices.
Under Jewish tradition, a mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah, which is put inside a special case and attached to doorframes as a kind of blessing. Some people like to kiss their hand and touch the case as they go in and out of the building, for good luck.
Simhon’s big plan, then, is to change the blessings inside these mezuzot in an effort to change Israel’s luck with rainfall patterns. The minister explained his logic by telling other ministers that when Labor was at an all-time low in the polls, he changed the mezuzot at the Labor House, and the party doubled its strength.
Good to know the water crisis is in capable hands, eh? Perhaps we should also consider bringing a tribe of native Indians across to do a rainfall dance. Of course water rationing, and a desalination plant or two might also help. But hell, what would I know, I’m not a government minister.

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First rains

September 28, 2008 - 1:39 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Life 

It was the first rain yesterday. In Israel we take our rain seriously. My children were out there quick as a flash, dancing around the garden as if…, well as if they hadn’t seen rain for six months.

Their education in water conservation was immediately apparent. Every container they could find was pressed into use catching raindrops and run off water from the roof. When the rain stopped they began diligently watering all the pots.

rain B.jpg

It may have been short, and it was definitely filthy (the first rain always leaves you wiping down your windows, car, garden furniture, and the floor, if you unluckily left your window open), but yesterday’s rain was a welcome sight for everyone.

rain A.jpg

Last year’s dry, warm winter compounded three previous years of drought, leaving Israel facing its worst water crisis in years.
With the red line of the Galilee – Israel’s main reservoir of natural water – already breached, pumping looks as if its set to reach the black line, beyond which point many believe the damage to the lake is irreversible.

With the government seemingly doing little to reverse the crisis – even water rates haven’t gone up in price – we desperately need rain this year, and many will be hoping that Saturday’s early shower will be an indication of a rainy winter to come. Around Jerusalem at least, up to half an inch fell yesterday, while in Tel Aviv and other areas of the country, the rain was fairly light and drizzly, allowing the parched earth to absorb some of the run off.

No forecasters are willing to give any predictions of rainfall this winter, but the rain did set in motion one important yearly tradition, known and dreaded by parents – mostly mothers – everywhere: the autumn switch to winter clothes, an exhausting job that involves trailing through the dark recesses of children’s wardrobes, and boxes stashed under the bed.

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