Weather experts are waiting to see whether temperature records are shattered later this week as a massive heatwave sweeps the country, reaching its peak on Wednesday and Thursday.
Amos Porat, director of Climate Services at the Israel Meteorological Service (IMS), told the Times of Israel on Sunday that the eastern part of the country was expected to be hardest hit, from the Hula Valley and the Sea of Galilee in the northeast down to the Arava Desert in the south.
Temperatures in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee are expected to hit 49°C and 47°C respectively (120°F and 116.6°F) on Wednesday and Thursday. The record for the area, is 45.9°C (114.6 °F).
Predictions are that the city of Beit She’an, south of the Sea of Galilee in the Jordan Valley, will register 48°C (118.4°F), breaking a record of 46.3°C (115.3°F) registered in the area in the past. Further inland in the northern hills, the city of Karmiel will swelter in 45°C (113°F) and 44°C (111 °F) on those two days, beating an area high of 43.5°C (110.3°F).
Afula, in the Jezreel Valley, will steam at 44°C (111°F) on both days, just shy of a local record of 44.5°C (112°F) .
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Jerusalem registered a record 44.4°C (111.9°F ) in 1881. On Wednesday and Thursday, residents are set to sweat in 41°C (105.8°F).
Coastal Tel Aviv-Jaffa, where the mercury hit 46.5°C (115.7 °F) in 1916, will reach a relatively comfortable maximum of 33°C (91.4 °F) on Wednesday and Friday.
Beersheba, where the heat reached 46°C (115.7°F) in 1933, is expected to climax at 41°C (105.8°F) on Wednesday and Thursday.
At Israel’s southernmost point, Eilat, on the Red Sea, predictions are for 46°C (114.8°F) on Monday afternoon, 48°C (118.4°F) on Tuesday, and 49°C (120°F) on Thursday. The city’s record to date is 48.9°C (120 °F), set in September 2020.
Dr Amos Porat of the Israel Meteorological Service. (Courtesy)
Porat said it was difficult to pinpoint the reasons for the current heatwave. Heatwaves were common during the summer, he explained. “But the intensity, the length, the extreme temperatures [we are seeing], are quite possibly related to climate change.”
In March, the IMS reported that between December and February, less than 40 percent of the average seasonal rainfall was measured. Usually, these are the country’s wettest months.
On Sunday, the surface of the Sea of Galilee, one of the lowest-lying bodies of water on Earth and Israel’s emergency drinking water store, dipped to 212.525 meters (697 feet) below sea level. This was just above the so-called lower red line of 213 meters (699 feet) below sea level. Pumping beyond this level risks damaging the ecosystem.
To cope with such extreme situations, Israel in 2023 became the first country in the world able to channel desalinated water into a natural freshwater lake.
Israel is a climate “hotspot,” where temperatures are rising faster than the global average.
Last month, the Israel Meteorological Service predicted that average temperatures inland and in the mountains could rise by 4.5-5°C by the end of the century, and by 3-3.5°C along the coast and in the lowlands.
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