Foto Friday – Israel Weathering the Storms
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, Life, Picture of the Week, Travel
Israel has quite a lot of weather these days – which is pretty amazing considering that only less than a generation ago, we had no weather at all.
Photo by Zohar Shachar
More accurately put, we had no weather report. Before the advent of Channel 2 and cute-as-a-button weatherman Dani Rupp, each evening we were treated to the following day’s temperatures, but were given no indication as to where the winds were blowing in from. There were no maps, no Arab countries to blame for making sandstorms or Russians and Europeans to accuse for sending in cold fronts. Not like today, when any Israeli can access a weather satellite view online — or just watch the evening news — and be treated to sights like this one. Here’s what the weather is like today… and it’s not getting any better. Look at what’s sweeping in from Europe. Thanks a whole lot, Europe!
Source: Sat24.com
Today, Israel’s amateur weather buffs (like Jessica’s niece) brave rain, thunder, lightening, hurricanes and flash floods — all in the hope of getting a snap of that perfect storm…
Photo by Prof. Haim Kutiel
They then upload them to sites like IsraelWeather.co.il, run by forecaster Boaz Dayan. The site has shots of unusual weather phenomena, like this squared-off lightening bolt…
Photo by The Chessmaster
…and this water spout.
Photo by Noam Halfon, Nahariya.
It’s worth checking out, especially as Israel is finally getting a good watering. Now we can look forward to a bright green spring.
Photo by Revital BA, Kiryat Shemona
Going home
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Travel
I knew I was headed home to Israel as soon as we passed security in Philadelphia and entered the protected Israel-bound departure gate at US Air. After hearing nary a raised voice for a week, the tranquility was shattered by a woman’s voice shrieking in Hebrew.
She was complaining about something to do with another passenger encroaching on her space in the waiting area, or maybe cutting in line – it wasn’t totally clear. But in either scenario, I had to chuckle at the pot calling the kettle black – those are both Israeli inventions, so maybe she was just upset at having her tactics nicked.
As we sat down to wait for the flight and ran into a friend from Jerusalem on the same flight (also a longtime immigrant from the US), we got to talking about other cultural differences we’d noticed on our visits to the US. I recounted a day trip to Boston with my brother in which a car veered close to his one-month old Infinity forcing him to blast the horn.
“At least the horn works,” he said, looking on the bright side of the encounter. All I could think about was that he had spent a month driving prior to that without having to place his hand on the horn – Imagine being able to last a day like that in Israel?
We laughed together about Americans’ obsessions with the weather (when in both Minnesota and Maine, where we were respectively, the forecast for a few months can just be one one word – cold) and sports, especially fantasy football leagues which take on a far greater importance to fans than the actual games being played.
We contrasted those interests with what we Israelis spend our days debating – the Gilad Schalit release, the settlement freeze, and granted, to a lesser extent, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the weather – at least as far as rainfall and its impact on our water situation.
Of course, Americans also think about issues – the health bill, gay rights, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – but there’s still a sense of being once removed from them, of observing from the outside. We wondered out loud what it would be like to return to that environment.
My friend – who had lived for many years in the US as an adult before moving to Israel – said that he had made the choice, and that he would do it again without hesitation. Giving up the comfort, the football, and manners of the US for the cramped, in-your-face disfunctionality of Israel was a natural decision all because of this, he said, pointing to his 11-year-old daughter sitting next to him.
With that, our flight was called for boarding, and the planeload of mostly American tourists began to line up. It was time to go home.
Foto Friday – Israel from on high
Every minute of every day, eyes in the sky are watching and recording earth. The resulting images — only a fraction of which are on view to the public — are often incomprehensible and dull to the untrained eye, but sometimes you come across some that are fascinating. For example, this image from the NASA Visible Earth catalogue of a Saharan dust storm covering our region:
Or the beaches of Tel Aviv, as seen from the International Space Station:
It’s s bit shocking to realize the level of detail that satellite photography can achieve. For example, let’s check out the weather, shall we?, courtesy of EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.
| Europe-Africa | Middle East |
|---|---|
| Thermal IR (showing clouds) | |
 |
 |
| Visible wavelength | |
 |
 |
More weather information can be found at Israel Weather and more satellite images of Israel can be found at the wonderful Israel Science and Technology Homepage, a great resource.
Israel, as the ninth nation in the world to launch a satellite into orbit (the Ofeq 1 in 1988), has its own storied history of space surveillance — and while many of those stories will remain untold for a long, long time, at least one commercial venture has emerged: SpaceCom, whose Amos satellites provide communications services to a range of TV and radio broadcasters around the world.
The Amos 3 went into orbit last year, and launches are planned for 2010, 2011 and 2012. This image, of the Amos 2 satellite launch in 2003, is testament to the vision and tenacity of its founders — principally Meir Amit, a military hero and former head of Mossad who passed away at the age of 88 and was buried last week. A tribute to Amit can be found here.
Get your raincoats out, we’re in for a stormy winter
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.
Weird Wednesday: An Idiot’s Guide to the Tel Aviv Beach
Shalom from Tel Aviv, people-are you enjoying the gorgeous weather? I sure am. With my job kicking my tuchus, I’ve adapted a new strategy for the weekends. I like to call it “sit on the beach and do nothing.” I highly recommend it. And apparently many have taken this recommendation to heart as evidenced by the large number of locals and tourists flocking to Chof (Beach) Bograshov on Fridays and Saturdays. And why not? If you hadn’t heard, Tel Aviv is approximately halfway between Jerusalem and the sun. With temperatures hot and getting hotter, what better place to spend your time than the beach?
Unless you want your appearance to scream “TOURIST!!!”, you’ll want to take the appropriate measures to fit in. Without further ado, here’s a quick idiot’s guide to what you need to know about the Tel Aviv beach. (By the end of this post, you might appreciate why the Tel Aviv beach might fall under the category of “Weird Wednesday.” If not, it’s time for a quick visit.)
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